tihvavy  of  t:he  theological  ^tminaxy 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


BV  3427  .P5  S63  1903 
Speer,  Robert  E.  1867-1947. 
A  memorial  of  Horace  Tracy 
Pitkin 


A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 


WORKS 
ROBERT  E. 


B    Y 


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A    Memorial   o f$h 
Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 


JUN  17  1957 


V< 


By 
ROBERT  E.  SPEER 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming    H.    Revell    Company 

London    and    Edinburgh 


Copyright,   1905,  by 

FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 

( Novefnber) 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  6}  Washington  Street 
Toronto:  27  Richmond  Street,  W 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:    30    St.    Mary   Street 


To  His  Wife 
AND  Son 


Preface 

Horace  Tracy  Pitkin  was  one  of  the  increasing 
number  of  young  university  men  who  have  fol- 
lowed Christ  with  their  whole  hearts,  and  have 
set  His  service  above  all  else,  even  life.  At  Exe- 
ter, at  Yale,  and  in  Union  Seminary,  in  the  work 
of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  in  the  life  of  a 
missionary,  and  in  the  death  of  a  martyr  in  China, 
he  strove  wholly  to  follow  the  Saviour.  This 
memorial  seeks  to  preserve  the  influence  of  one 
who,  loving  the  truth  and  scorning  unreality, 
made  it  his  meat  and  drink  to  do  the  will  of  God. 

Almost  all  of  the  material  for  this  memorial 
was  gathered  by  the  Rev.  O.  H.  Bronson,  who 
was  a  classmate  of  Pitkin's  at  Yale,  and  who  was 
with  him  in  Union  Seminary.  Both  he  and  Mrs. 
Pitkin  have  read  the  manuscript  and  made  sug- 
gestions which  I  have,  of  course,  followed.  For 
any  errors  of  statement  or  judgment,  however,  I 
am  responsible. 

In  a  memorial  volume  of  this  character,  it  is 
difficult  to  decide  what  to  include  and  what  to 
omit.  As  the  majority  of  its  readers,  however, 
are  likely  to  be  those  who  knew  the  life  de- 
scribed, it  seems  best  to  err  on  the  side  of  incor- 
porating what  they  will  wish  to  see,  rather  than 
to  attempt  to   exclude  what  a  stranger  would 

5 


6  Preface 

consider  of  but  slight  importance.  Accordingly, 
I  have  embodied  in  the  memorial  much  of  per- 
sonal testimony,  and  of  the  judgment  of  friends 
who  knew  Horace,  which  other  friends  will  ap- 
preciate and  understand. 

Some  will  feel,  doubtless,  that  the  story  of  the 
life  might  have  been  told  more  briefly.  This  is 
true,  but  this  is  not  simply  a  story  of  a  life.  It  is 
a  meeting  place,  where  many  who  knew  and 
loved  the  true  man  pictured  here,  may  gather  and 
compare  their  recollections,  and  confirm  their 
purposes  to  follow  more  faithfully  the  Master 
whom  he  served,  even  unto  death. 

The  supreme  glory  of  Horace  Pitkin's  life  was 
its  exaltation  of  principle  and  duty  into  the  su- 
preme place.  Not  pleasure,  nor  ease,  nor  popu- 
larity, nor  gain,  but  righteousness  and  service, 
were  the  dominant  interests  of  his  heart  and  will, 
and  these  he  followed  though  they  led  him  under 
the  shadow  of  the  Cross. 

«  It  is  the  way  the  Saviour  went. 
Shall  not  the  servant  tread  it  still  ?  " 

And  if  he,  why  not  we  ? 

R.  E.  S. 


Contents 


I 

Ancestry  and  Boyhood 9 

II 
At  Yale 42 

III 

At  Union  Theological  Seminary  ....      77 

IV 

Among  the  Colleges  of  the  West  .    .    .     107 

V 

Appointment  by  the  American  Board  .    .     130 

VI 

The  Journey  to  China 152 

VII 

Life  and  Work  in  China     .    .    .    .    .    .     178 

VIII 
*•  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  in  the  West  "249 

IX 
In  Memoriam -295 

7 


ANCESTRY  AND  BOYHOOD 

"  A  tone  of  pride  or  petulance  repressed, 
A  selfish  inclination  firmly  fought, 
A  shadow  of  annoyance  set  at  naught, 
A  measure  of  disquietude  suppressed ; 
A  peace  in  importunity  possessed, 
A  reconcilement  generously  sought, 
A  purpose  put  aside — a  banished  thought, 
A  word  of  self-explaining  unexpressed  ; 
Trifles,  they  seem,  these  petty  soul-restraints, 
Yet  he  who  proves  them  so  must  needs  possess 
A  constancy  and  courage  grand  and  bold. 
They  are  the  trifles  that  have  made  the  saints. 
Give  me  to  practice  them  in  humbleness, 
And  nobler  power  than  mine  doth  no  man  hold." 

Horace  Tracy  Pitkin's  ancestry  runs  back  to 
the  beginnings  of  the  American  nation.  William 
Pitkin  came  to  New  England  from  London  in 
1659  and  was  attorney-general  of  Connecticut  in 
1664.  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin  was  of  the  eighth 
generation  in  direct  descent  from  William.  Wil- 
liam Pitkin's  sister  Martha,  came  to  join  him  in 
1661,  expecting  to  return  with  him  to  England, 
"  not  once  supposing  he  intended  to  remain  in 
the  wilderness,"  as  she  expressed  it.  The  Pit- 
kin Genealogy  relates  that  "her  first  greeting 
on  meeting  her  brother,  whom  she  found  feeding 

9 


10     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

his  swine,  was,  '  I  left  a  brother  in  England  serv- 
ing his  king,  and  find  another  in  America  serving 
his  swine.'  She  was  a  lady  endowed  with  more 
than  ordmary  talent,  improved  by  an  excellent 
education.  The  reception  she  met  with  in  the 
colony,  was  most  flattering;  her  comely  form 
and  accomplished  manner  making  the  colonists 
anxious  to  retain  her  in  their  country.  In  the 
words  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Robbins,  for  many 
years  the  pastor  of  the  church  she  attended,  'this 
girl  put  the  colony  in  commotion.  If  possible 
she  must  be  detained.  The  stock  was  too  val- 
uable to  be  parted  with.  It  became  a  matter  of 
general  consultation  what  young  man  was  good 
enough  for  Miss  Pitkin.'  Tradition  says  that  so 
many  young  men  wished  to  marry  the  accom- 
plished beauty,  that  they  cast  lots  for  her  hand, 
but  fails  to  say  what  part  Miss  Pitkin  was  to  take 
in  the  affair.  The  facts  are,  that  the  sons  of 
Henry  Wolcott,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  East 
Windsor,  were  well  pleased  with  Miss  Pitkin,  and 
to  avoid  all  question  of  strife  or  jealousy,  it  is  be- 
lieved it  was  decided  by  lot  among  themselves 
which  one  should  sue  for  her  hand.  The  lot  fell 
to  Simon  Wolcott,  the  youngest  son;  at  all 
events,  he  pressed  his  suit,  and  was  successful. 
Her  brother  favored  the  match,  and  she  became 
the  wife  of  Simon  Wolcott,  and  subsequently 
the  mother  of  Governor  Roger  Wolcott."  Her 
grandson,  Oliver  Wolcott,  born  in  Windsor, 
moved  to  the  new  county  of  Litchfield,  about 
1750.     There  he  held  important  civil  and  military 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  1 1 

positions.  This  Oliver  Wolcott  was  a  signer  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  was  gov- 
ernor of  Connecticut  for  ten  years.  A  second 
Oliver  Wolcott,  a  son  of  the  former,  and  a 
native  of  Litchfield  County,  succeeded  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  as  secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
and  he  was  again  in  that  place  in  the  cabinets  of 
Washington  and  Adams.  He  refused  the  prof- 
fered place  at  the  head  of  the  first  United  States 
bank. 

The  Pitkins  settled  near  Hartford,  and  when  in 
1783,  East  Hartford  was  incorporated  as  a  sepa- 
rate town,  one-third  of  the  officers  chosen  for 
the  new  town  bore  the  name  of  Pitkin.  In  1766 
a  William  Pitkin  was  governor  of  Connecticut, 
and  held  the  office  till  his  death  in  1769.  That 
year  a  ballad  appeared,  satirizing  the  governors  of 
Connecticut,  which  dealt  with  Governor  Pitkin  in 
the  following  lines  : 

"  Our  old  friend  Will  next  took  the  Helm, 

Who'd  cruised  for  many  years,  Sir, 
And  steer'd  as  well,  when  the  weather  was  calm 

As  any  tar  on  board,  Sir. 
His  friendly  art  succeeded  now 

To  accomplish  every  measure. 
By  a  '  How  do  you  do,'  with  a  decent  Bow, 

And  a  shaking  of  hands  forever." 

In  war  as  in  peace  the  Pitkins  filled  a  con- 
spicuous place  in  the  colony  and  the  common- 
wealth. They  fought  in  the  Revolution  and 
later  wars.    In  1791,  fourteen  Pitkins  were  granted 


12     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

a  charter  as  an  artillery  company.  From  the  be- 
ginning the  family  were  engaged  in  manufactur- 
ing enterprises.  From  1686  almost  to  the  present 
day  some  members  of  the  family  have  been 
operating  mills.  At  first  it  was  fulling,  iron  and 
gunpowder  mills.  In  1750,  the  British  Parlia- 
ment prohibited  the  iron  industry.  When  the 
Revolution  came  all  the  mills  were  run  for  the 
manufacture  of  gunpowder  for  the  new  govern- 
ment at  a  great  loss  pecuniarily  to  the  Pitkins. 
"In  1784  William  Pitkin  by  reason  of  loss  in 
making  powder  for  the  government,  was  granted 
the  sole  privilege  of  making  snuff  in  the  State  for 
fourteen  years  exempt  from  taxation."  After  the 
Revolution,  in  many  new  mills,  cotton  and 
woolen  goods  and  glass  were  made.  William 
Pitkin's  powder  mill  is  believed  to  have  been  the 
first  powder  mill  built  in  this  country.  In  1807 
the  first  patent  ever  granted  in  America  for  the 
manufacture  of  felt  hats  was  granted  to  Joseph 
Pitkin.  In  1834  Henry  and  James  F.  Pitkin  com- 
menced to  make  the  first  watches  manufactured 
in  this  country. 

Although  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England 
when  he  came  to  America,  William  Pitkin  and 
his  family  became  members  of  the  Puritan  Church 
of  the  Colony,  **  The  First  Church  of  Christ  in 
Hartford."  A  manuscript  volume  of  religious 
writings  which  he  left,  shows  him  to  have  been 
a  man  of  devotion  and  of  considerable  theological 
knowledge.  The  Church  later  established  in 
East  Hartford,  was  called  **  The  Third  Church" 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  13 

of  Hartford.  Into  this  church  some  two  hundred 
Pitkin  children  have  been  baptized,  and  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  of  the  same  name  received  into 
membership.  Mr.  Elisha  Benton's  humorous 
lines,  written  more  than  a  century  ago  and  pre- 
served in  Major  Samuel  Pitkin's  papers,  giving 
advice  as  to  seating  the  people  in  the  meeting 
house,  indicate  the  standing  of  the  various 
families  in  the  community.  Of  the  Pitkins'  the 
poem  says: 

•'  As  mean  folks  should  never  be  mixed  with  their  betters, 
You  ought  to  distinguish  and  know  the  great  letters, 
Especially  all  the  great  capital  P's." 

On  his  mother's  side,  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin  was 
descended  from  Thomas  Yale,  the  founder  of  the 
Yale  family  in  America,  who  came  with  his 
mother  and  his  stepfather,  Governor  Eaton,  from 
England  in  1637,  and  settled  in  New  Haven. 
The  third  son,  Elihu  Yale,  born  in  1648,  was  left 
by  his  father  in  England  in  1659,  when  he  re- 
turned to  America  from  a  visit  to  England  begun 
the  previous  year.  At  the  age  of  thirty,  Elihu 
Yale  went  to  the  East  Indies,  in  the  service  of  the 
East  India  Company,  and  remained  in  India  about 
twenty  years,  acquiring  a  large  estate.  On  his 
return  to  London  he  was  chosen  governor  of  the 
East  India  Company,  and  spent  the  rest  of  his 
life  in  England.  He  helped  the  college  in  New 
Haven  so  generously,  that  in  honor  of  his  munifi- 
cence it  received  his  name.  The  Yale  Gene- 
alogy quotes  his  epitaph : 


14     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

EPITAPH  OF  ELIHU  YALE,  ESQ. 

Who  Died  July  22,  iy2i. 

Interred  at  Wrexham,  in  Denbighshire,  Wales. 

Born  in  America,  in  Europe  bred. 
In  Africa  traveWd^  and  in  Asia  wed. 
Where  long  he  lived  and  thriv'd,  at  London  dead^ 
Much  good,  some  ill  he  did;  so  hope  that  alVs  even^ 
And  that  his  Soul  thro'  Mercy^s  gone  to  Heaven, 
You  that  survive  and  read,  take  care 
For  this  ?jiost  certain  exit  to  prepare  ; 
For  only  the  actions  of  the  just 
Smell  sweet,  and  blossom  in  the  dust, 

Horace's  mother  was  a  daughter  of  the  Rev. 
Cyrus  Yale  of  New  Hartford,  Litchfield  County, 
Connecticut,  a  lineal  descendant  of  Elihu  Yale. 
The  grandfather  was  a  neighbor  and  friend  of 
the  father  of  Samuel  J.  Mills,  one  of  the  group  at 
the  Missionary  Hay  Stack  at  Williamstown,  the 
fountain  of  foreign  missionary  impulse  in 
America.  Litchfield  County  was  a  foreign  mis- 
sionary region.  Dr.  Trumbull  in  his  account 
of  Litchfield  County's  Contributions  to  the 
Nation's  Power  and  Fame  sketches  the  work  of 
this  one  rural  county  in  the  work  of  missions: 

"Samuel  J.  Mills  was  the  earliest  American 
student  volunteer  for  the  evangelization  of  the 
world.  He  was  the  leader  in  the  little  group 
under  the  haystack  at  Williamstown,  when  the 
storm  came  on  as  they  prayed  and  as  they  pur- 
posed to  go  abroad.  He  was  born  in  Litchfield 
County,  where  his  father  was  a  pastor;  as  was 
also  the  father  of  Adoniram  Judson,  who  was 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  15 

one  of  the  first  five  missionaries  to  go  out  under 
the  American  Board. 

"The  first  school  for  foreign  missions  or- 
ganized in  this  country,  if  not  in  the  world,  was 
in  Litchfield  County.  It  included  pupils  from 
the  Sandwich  Islands,  natives  of  Africa,  and 
persons  from  various  tribes  of  American  Indians. 
A  number  of  these  pupils  went  back  to  the  peo- 
ple from  whom  they  came;  and  quite  a  number 
of  those  who  saw  them,  on  visiting  the  school  at 
Cornwall,  were  aroused  by  this  object  lesson  to 
go  out  as  foreign  missionaries.  Among  these 
was  Hiram  Bingham  the  pioneer  missionary  to 
the  Sandwich  Islands. 

"  Of  the  pupils  in  that  Foreign  Missionary 
School  at  Cornwall,  ten  went  as  missionaries  to 
the  Indians,  seventeen  to  the  Sandwich  Islands 
and  the  others  were  widely  scattered. 

'*  Litchfield  County  was,  in  a  sense,  the  be- 
ginning of  American  foreign  missionary  work. 
For  years,  it  continued  to  be  in  the  lead.  It  is 
recorded  of  Dr.  Worcester,  the  early  correspond- 
ing secretary  of  the  American  Board,  that  when 
the  liberal  contributions  came  in  from  this  field 
in  a  time  of  financial  embarrassment,  he  cried  out 
with  a  grateful  heart:  'I  bless  God  for  making 
Litchfield  County.'  And  so  said  many  another 
man  of  God,  as  the  years  passed  on. 

**  Among  the  earnest  and  influential  friends  and 
representative  advocates  of  the  foreign  missionary 
cause  was  for  years  the  Rev.  Dr.  Augustus  C. 
Thompson,  a  native  of  Goshen,  of  Litchfield 
County.  He  was  one  of  the  Prudential  Com- 
mittee of  the  American  Board  for  more  than  forty 
years.  He  was  a  member  of  the  deputation 
from  the  Board  to  visit  the  missions  in  India  in 
1845  and  1855.  He  was  for  a  time  the  formal 
lecturer  on  foreign  missions  in  Andover  Theo- 
logical   Seminary,   in  the  Hartford  Theological 


i6     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Seminary  and  at  Boston  University.  He  wrote 
an  important  volume  on  Moravian  missions,  an- 
other on  Protestant  missions,  and  yet  another  on 
foreign  missions.  Yet,  while  doing  all  this  work 
at  home  and  abroad,  he  was  for  nearly  sixty 
years  pastor  of  the  Eliot  Congregational  Church 
at  Roxbury,  Massachusetts,  and  he  was  the 
author  of  very  many  sacred  and  devotional 
volumes  that  have  made  their  impress  on  his 
generation.  And  this  is  but  a  single  Litchfield 
County  native. 

"The  Hon.  Robbins  Battell  of  Norfolk  was 
one  of  the  friends  of  missions  who  made  Litch- 
field County  a  place  to  thank  God  for.  He  was 
a  relative  of  two  of  the  pioneers  whose  names 
are  on  the  famous  haystack  monument  at 
Williamstown. 

"For  eighteen  years,  he  was  a  corporate 
member  of  the  American  Board,  giving  ever  wise 
and  valued  counsel  in  its  management  and  con- 
tributing of  his  means  to  aid  it  liberally  in  its 
ordinary  outlays,  and  again,  on  special  occasions, 
to  lift  its  occasional  debts.  This  continued  to  his 
Hfe's  close. 

"A  number  of  active  missionaries  to  foreign 
fields  were  natives  of  Litchfield  County,  and  all 
of  them  were  worthy  of  their  nativity.  Isaac 
Bird  of  this  county  was  a  worker  of  note  in 
Palestine,  and  both  there  and  after  his  return,  he 
did  good  service  to  God  and  to  man.  A  yet 
earlier  missionary  from  this  county,  Benjamin  C. 
Meigs,  did  good  service  in  Ceylon,  which  has 
been  for  years  one  of  the  strategic  points  of  the 
world's  conquest  for  Christ. 

"  In  the  first  fifty  years  of  American  missionary 
history,  it  should  be  noted  that,  besides  those 
already  mentioned,  and  besides  the  children  of 
Litchfield  County  natives  born  elsewhere,  the 
Rev.  Abel  K.  Hinsdale  went  from  Torrington  to 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  17 

the  Nestorian  Mission;  Mary  Grant,  wife  of  the 
Rev.  Ebenezer  Burgess,  went  from  Colebrook  to 
Ahmednugger  in  the  Mahratta  Mission;  Julia  M. 
Terry,  wife  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Harding,  went 
from  Plymouth  to  Bombay;  Sarah  M.  Peet,  of 
Bethlehem,  with  her  husband,  Benjamin  C.  Meigs, 
went  to  Ceylon;  the  Rev.  John  M.  S.  Perry  went 
from  Sharon  to  Ceylon;  the  Rev.  Samuel  G. 
Whittlesey  went  from  New  Preston  to  Ceylon; 
Sarah  A.  Chamberlain  of  Sharon,  wife  of  the 
Rev.  Joseph  Scudder,  also  went  to  Ceylon.  Be- 
sides those  missionaries  already  named  as  going 
from  Litchfield  County  to  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
there  should  be  mentioned  the  Rev.  David  B. 
Lyman,  of  New  Hartford,  who  went  to  Hono- 
lulu; the  Rev.  Eliphalet  Whittlesey,  of  Salisbury, 
who  also  went  to  Honolulu;  Mr.  Abner  Wilcox 
from  Harwinton  to  Hilo;  Louise  Everest  of 
Cornwall,  wife  of  the  Rev.  James  Ely,  went  to 
Honolulu. 

"Quite  a  number  of  the  most  active  and  influen- 
tial missionaries  among  the  Cherokees  and  Choc- 
taws  and  Dakotas,  and  the  Ojibwas  and  Osages, 
were  from  Litchfield  County.  In  former  days, 
the  American  Indians  were  counted  a  foreign 
nation, — as  they  are  still,  by  many,  treated  as 
though  they  were." 

Other  great  names  of  sons  and  daughters  of 
Litchfield  County  are  Ethan  Allen,  Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe,  John  Brown  of  Ossawatomie,  Horace 
Bushnell,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Charles  G.  Fin- 
ney, Nathaniel  W.  Taylor,  C.  P.  Huntington  and 
Elisha  Whittlesey,  and  the  list  might  be  in- 
definitely extended. 

The  traditions  of  New  Hartford  where  Horace's 
mother  was  born,  are  in  harmony  with  the  deep 


l8     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

and  distinctive  spirit  of  the  county.  Dr.  Edward 
Dorr  Griffin,  President  of  Williams  College,  was 
one  of  Mr.  Yale's  predecessors  in  this  parish.  A I 
the  third  annual  convention  of  the  Sunday-school 
Teachers  of  Connecticut,  held  at  Bridgeport  in 
September,  1859,  Dr.  Hodge,  of  Bridgeport, 
said  : 

"Dr.  Griffin  once  wrote  a  letter  to  Dr.  W.  B. 
Sprague,  of  Albany,  giving  an  account  of  a  revival 
in  New  Hartford,  where  he  was  first  settled.  He 
said  he  could  stand  on  the  steps  of  his  house  and 
look  over  into  three  parishes,  where  the  rains  of 
the  Spirit  were  falling,  where  the  Spirit  was 
poured  out  upon  them  in  a  most  wonderful  man- 
ner. But  in  New  Hartford  no  dew  descended. 
He  used  often  to  go  out,  and  stand  on  the  steps, 
and  look  over  into  these  parishes,  where  God 
was  achieving  such  wonders  by  His  grace ;  and  O ! 
how  he  did  wish  that  it  might  please  his  heav- 
enly Father  to  cast  an  eye  of  compassion  on  him- 
self and  his  people,  and  wonder  if  the  Lord  had 
no  blessing  for  them.  With  such  feelings  he  said 
he  went  into  his  study  one  day,  and  prostrated 
himself  on  the  floor.  He  did  not  kneel,  he  lay 
down,  and  rolled  there  in  agony,  and  cried  to 
God  that  it  might  please  Him  to  bless  him  too, 
and  also  remember  New  Hartford.  While  thus 
engaged  in  prayer  the  words  of  the  Psalmist,  in  the 
sixty-second  Psalm  came  to  him,  '  My  soul,  wait 
thou  only  upon  God,  for  my  expectation  is  from 
Him.'  He  said  it  at  once  occurred  to  him  that  he 
would  prepare  a  sermon  on  that  text.  He  deter- 
mined to  do  so,  and  prayed  over  every  line  as  he 
wrote  it.  On  Sabbath  morning  he  was  so  wrought 
up  in  spirit  that  he  said  when  he  went  into  the 
sanctuary  he  did  not  know  there  was  anybody  in 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  ig 

it — he  didn't  see  them.  He  went  into  the  pulpit, 
commenced  the  introductory  service,  and  when 
he  came  to  read  his  text,  he  read  it  in  this  wise — 
'  jMy  soul,  wait  thou  only,  only,  only  upon  God, 
for  my  expectation  is  from  Him.'  He  preached 
the  sermon,  and  went  home,  followed  by  forty 
men,  inquiring  with  tears,  to  know  what  they 
must  do  to  be  saved." 


Cyrus  Yale  was  pastor  of  this  parish  from  1814 
to  1854,  the  date  of  his  death.  In  i860  his 
daughter  Lucy  Tracy  Yale,  was  married  to  Horace 
W.  Pitkin  at  the  house  of  her  sister  in  Hartford. 
Mr.  Pitkin  had  lived  at  the  Manchester  home, 
attending  school  until  he  was  about  twenty  years 
of  age,  when  he  went  South  to  Virginia  to  engage 
in  raising  mulberry  trees  for  silkworms.  There 
he  remained  two  years,  after  which  he  went  to 
Alabama  as  a  missionary  to  the  Cherokee  Indians. 
One  writes  of  him  : 


"He  worked  faithfully  among  them  for  six 
years,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he  took  up  the 
business  of  introducing  the  Osage  orange  hedge 
in  northern  states.  At  this  business  he  earned 
the  first  thousand  dollars  that  he  had  ever  owned. 
Feeling  very  wealthy,  he  went  home  to  Man- 
chester, to  live  a  year.  He  invested  the  $1,000  in 
a  seed  store  in  Louisville,  Ky.,  in  partnership 
with  his  brother,  George  W.  Pitkin.  The  busi- 
ness of  selling  seeds  and  farming  implements 
proved  very  successful,  and  the  two  brothers 
continued  in  it  until  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
when  their  business  was  wiped  out. 

**  After  their  marriage  in  i860,   Mr.  and  Mrs. 


20     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Pitkin  went  to  Louisville,  Ky.,  to  live.  In  the 
fall  of  1861,  they  went  to  Philadelphia,  with  their 
one  child,  Leila,  a  baby  at  the  time.  In  the  fol- 
lowing spring,  Mr.  Pitkin  went  down  to  Virginia 
and  looked  over  the  field.  He  was  impressed 
with  the  great  waste  when  'camp  broke,'  the 
many  useful  and  valuable  things  left  behind. 
This  opened  his  eyes  to  the  needs  of  the  soldiers, 
when  tents  were  pitched  again,  and  he  saw  an 
opportunity  to  serve  the  soldiers  and  support  his 
family.  Accordingly,  he  opened  up  stores  in  Alex- 
andria and  other  places,  and  stocked  them  gen- 
erously with  supplies  for  soldiers.  In  this  way 
he  became  known  to  a  large  number  of  soldiers 
and  officers,  and  was  able  to  help  them  in  many 
ways.  After  the  war,  he  engaged  in  the  business 
of  selling  government  supplies;  things  that  had 
been  ordered  for  armies  and  which  were  not 
needed,  such  as  tents,  uniforms,  etc.  From  this, 
he  naturally  entered  into  the  business  of  manu- 
facturer's agent,  where  he  made  a  very  comfort- 
able income.  In  this  business,  he  engaged  in 
partnership  with  Mr.  Augustus  Thomas,  until 
the  time  of  his  death,  November  8,  1889,  at 
the  age  of  sixty-six  years. 

"Horace  W.  was  a  most  generous  man,  and 
gave  a  great  deal  to  charity.  He  was  also  very 
modest,  and  did  not  even  tell  his  family  of  the 
many  ways  in  which  he  helped  people.  When  I 
was  in  New  Hartford,  I  heard  from  a  number  of 
their  gratitude  to  Mr.  Pitkin  for  some  help  which 
he  had  rendered  them.  When  in  Tryon,  N.  C, 
a  retired  minister  told  me  with  tears  in  his  eyes, 
that  Mr.  Pitkin  had  'helped  him  out'  many  a 
time.  In  Asheville,  N.  C,  Dr.  Lawrence,  of  the 
Normal  school,  said  that  Mr.  Pitkin  had  at  two 
different  times  given  him  checks  for  $1,000,  for 
work  among  the  negroes  farther  south.  A  pres- 
ent of  a  cow  and  feed  was  sent  to  a  struggling 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  21 

New  Hartford  minister,  who  had  complained  to 
Mr.  Pitkin  of  the  milkman's  milk." 

Horace  Tracy  Pitkin  was  born  in  Philadelphia, 
at  1 824  De  Lancey  Place,  on  October  28,  1 869.  His 
two  sisters  were  both  older.  His  youngest  sister 
died  in  Philadelphia,  in  1892.  The  other  sister 
was  married  to  Charles  Eliot,  the  son  of  President 
Eliot,  of  Harvard,  in  1888.  President  Eliot  has 
written  the  story  of  his  son's  life  in  Charles 
Eliot,  Landscape  Architect.  Mrs.  Pitkin  died  in 
July,  1 88 1,  when  Horace  was  eleven  years  of  age. 
The  boy  lived  a  wholesome,  normal  boy's  life. 
The  few  incidents  that  friends  recall  only  illustrate 
its  natural  and  easy  attractiveness  and  develop- 
ment.    One  friend  writes: 

"  In  1870,  when  Horace  Tracy  was  only  seven 
months  old,  his  father  and  mother  went  to  Europe 
and  were  gone  five  months.  A  relative  (Miss 
Nellie  Holton)  went  to  New  Hartford  and  took 
care  of  the  baby  during  those  months. 

*M  have  often  heard  it  said  that  little  Horace 
early  showed  signs  of  a  very  strong  will  and  also 
a  quick  temper.  His  mother  used  to  tell  of 
Horace's  first  attempt  at  singing  a  tune.  He  was 
about  a  year  old  and  lying  in  his  cradle,  and  he 
was  singing  a  church  hymn,  which  he  had  un- 
doubtedly heard  his  mother  sing  a  great  many 
times  as  she  sat  and  sewed  or  busied  herself 
around  the  room.  The  little  fellow  would  hum 
the  tune  correctly  until  he  came  to  a  high  note 
which  he  could  not  reach.  His  mother,  thinking 
to  help  him  out,  would  strike  the  note  for  him. 
But  this  displeased  him  very  much  and  he  would 
begin  at  the  very  first  again.     Time  after  time  he 


22     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

tried  it  without  success,  showing  that  he  knew 
just  what  the  correct  note  was,  but  could  not  get 
it.  Each  time  he  would  go  back  to  the  beginning 
with  a  good  deal  of  patience  and  perseverance 
for  so  young  a  child.  At  last,  he  sang  it  cor- 
rectly and  showed  great  pleasure  at  his  success. 
He  had  a  very  accurate  ear  and  when  quite  a 
young  boy  was  able  to  sing  a  very  good  second. 
The  Pitkin  family  were  very  musical,  and  Horace's 
father  had  a  very  good  tenor  voice.  Horace  W.'s 
brothers  all  had  very  unusual  tenor  voices,  so  that 
it  was  no  wonder  that  Horace  Tracy  was  so  fond 
of  music,  and  able  to  sing  and  play,  with  so 
much  pleasure  to  himself  and  others. 

"  Every  summer  of  Horace  Tracy's  life  up  to 
the  time  of  his  going  to  China  was  spent  at  the 
old  Yale  homestead  at  New  Hartford.  When  a 
child,  he  was  sent  with  his  nurse,  early  in  the 
spring,  before  his  father  and  mother  went.  There 
he  lived  out  of  doors,  fishing,  rowing,  sailing, 
driving — a  healthy,  active,  strong  boy.  His 
father's  devotion  to  him  (his  only  son)  and  his 
interest  in  the  boy's  daily  life  and  his  guidance  of 
him  (as  Horace  used  to  tell  me  of  it)  were  most 
beautiful.  When  he  was  a  young  lad,  his  father 
bought  him  a  set  of  tools,  not  a  cheap  set,  that 
would  be  mere  toys,  but  a  good  set,  parts  of 
which  Horace  still  had  in  China  and  used  fre- 
quently. His  father  spent  hours  teaching  him 
how  to  use  them  and  took  great  pleasure  in  his 
progress.  When  about  fourteen,  he  was  greatly 
interested  in  electricity,  and  his  father  allowed 
him  to  wire  the  house  with  electric  bells,  teach- 
ing him  how  to  conceal  the  wires.  All  of  these 
things  Horace  enjoyed  keenly.  He  was  taken 
when  but  six  years  old  to  the  Centennial  Build- 
ings and  remembered  well  his  intense  interest  in 
the  machinery  in  Machinery  Hall,  and  his  father's 
patience  in  explaining  everything  to  him." 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  23 

A  cousin  of  Horace's,  a  daughter  of  the  Rev. 
Charles  S.  Sherman  of  Naugatuck,  (who  had  gone 
as  a  missionary  to  Jerusalem,  with  his  friend, 
Samuel  J.  Wolcott,  D.D.,  of  Cleveland,  who  was 
a  descendant  of  Simon  Wolcott  and  Martha  Pit- 
kin), writes  of  her  recollection: 


"It  is  desirable  to  know  the  beginning  of  a 
beautiful  life.  The  first  time  1  saw  Horace  was, 
1  think,  in  the  summer  of  '74,  when  with  his 
mother  and  father  and  nurse,  he  visited  our 
home.  He  was  then  a  noble  looking  boy  of  five 
in  kilts.  1  remember  he  went  to  church  for  the 
first  time  during  this  visit  and  was  reported  as  a 

*  good  boy.'  It  was  the  following  three  winters, 
1  think,  that  I  spent  in  that  lovely  home  in  Phila- 
delphia, distinguished  for  its  charity  and  devotion, 
and  its  sunny  atmosphere.  Horace's  mother  was 
a  rare  character.     The  springs  of  her  life  were 

*  hid  with  Christ  in  God.'  She  was  one,  who  in 
the  smallest  details  of  life  made  her  requests 
known  to  God  and  His  peace  was  hers.  De- 
voted she  was,  indeed,  first  to  God  and  then  to 
her  family,  her  large  circle  of  relatives,  to  her 
church,  and  its  benevolences.  Society  too  re- 
ceived her  attention.  She  loved  social  life,  con- 
versation, study  and  travel.  She  believed  in 
being  happy  where  God  places  one. 

"  The  father  was  by  inheritance  of  strong  re- 
ligious nature,  'given  to  hospitality.'  His  gen- 
erosity was  unbounded.  Giving  himself  in  early 
life  to  missionary  work  among  the  Cherokee  In- 
dians, he  felt  later  that  his  call  was  to  support  by 
his  means,  the  work  which  others  were  doing. 
He  dearly  loved  his  children  and  took  great  de- 
light in  them,  especially  in  the  training  of  his  son 
for  useful  manhood.     He  was  a  good  business 


24     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

man  and  prosperous.  He  had  insight.  He  knew 
men  and  loved  to  hold  converse  with  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men,  to  learn  something  from 
them.  Besides  his  duties  as  elder  in  the  Church, 
he  gave  Sunday  afternoons  to  visiting  the  prisons, 
giving  helpful  talks  to  the  prisoners.  Later,  he 
was  greatly  interested  in  political  reform. 

"  I  remember  the  morning  prayers  when  all  the 
family  joined  in  singing  the  hymn,  often  selected 
by  the  children.  And  each  said  a  verse.  Horace's 
favorite  was,  'Study  to  be  quiet  and  mind  your 
own  business,'  with  emphasis  on  the  latter  por- 
tion of  the  verse.  I  remember  at  the  table  when 
the  blessing  was  often  sung,  *  Day  by  day  the 
manna  fell,  O  to  learn  that  lesson  well,'  in  which 
he  always  joined.  His  life  was  a  song.  I  have 
heard  that  he  could  sing  before  he  could  talk.  I 
recall  the  racing  down-stairs  of  the  children  after 
the  New  Year's  reception  was  over,  to  eat  up  the 
meringue.  I  remember  Horace's  peculiar  expres- 
sion of  impatience  to  his  sister,  *  Stop  that,  won't 
you  not?'  He  had  quite  a  quick  little  temper, 
over  which  he  came  to  have  splendid  control.  I 
do  not  recall  any  punishments  in  the  house  or 
need  of  any.  I  remember  the  Centennial  and 
what  a  keen  interest  the  boy  took  in  Machinery 
Hall,  and  the  morning  hours  of  study  in  which 
Horace  learned  to  read  and  recite  arithmetic 
tables  and  several  years  later  visiting  in  Philadel- 
phia, when  Horace  was  in  the  Latin  School,  his 
great  diligence  in  study.  It  was  at  that  time,  I 
think,  he  had  a  telephone  arrangement  between 
his  room  and  that  of  a  friend  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  street.  I  believe  later  they  had  a  printing 
press  and  got  out  a  weekly  paper.  I  remember 
the  Thanksgiving  and  other  visits  to  the  Connec- 
ticut home  during  the  Exeter  and  college  days 
and  his  jollity  then.  I  rememiber  the  first  time  I 
heard  him  pray  in  Christian  Endeavor  Society. 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  25 

It  was  an  earnest  prayer,  but  stumbling  and  brief, 
a  cross  which  he  bravely  took  up.  I  remember 
also  the  last  time  when  he  so  grandly  filled  the 
pulpit  and  inspired  his  audience  with  his  own 
enthusiasm  for  the  work  to  which  God  had 
called  him.  I  shall  never  forget  his  exquisite 
sympathy  and  trustfulness." 

Two  other  cousins  write: 

"As  I  remember,  he  was  as  a  child  only  re- 
markable for  his  excellent  musical  ear,  being  able 
to  sing  a  good  second  at  a  very  early  age.  i 
think  his  mother  helped  him;  she  had  a  beautiful 
alto  voice  and  he  always  sat  next  to  her.  He 
always  seemed  to  me  to  be  perfectly  normal  and 
what  a  child  brought  up  under  Christian  influ- 
ence, ought  to  be.  He  always  liked  to  go  to 
church.  When  he  was  six  or  seven,  he  would 
sit  still  as  a  mouse  watching  the  minister,  partly 
to  reproduce  the  minister's  gestures,  etc.,  for  his 
own  congregation  of  sisters,  dolls  and  pussy-cats 
later  in  the  day.  He  was  very  fond  of  fishing 
and  he  was  often  taken  to  the  pond  when  his 
father  and  mine  would  go  with  Heber  for  the 
day.  He  was  very  companionable.  1  do  not 
think  that  his  mechanical  bent  was  ever  culti- 
vated; like  all  of  the  family,  he  was  skillful  with 
his  hands  and  ingenious  in  tinkering  old  clocks 
and  mending  frames  or  prolonging  the  life  of  de- 
crepit machines. 

"At  the  age  of  say  six  or  seven  years,  a  fa- 
vorite Sunday  amusement  of  his  was  conducting 
services  with  as  large  a  congregation  of  the 
younger  children  as  he  could  assemble.  One  af- 
ternoon, he  had  Francine,  Grace,  Mary  and  their 
nurse,  Louise,  in  one  room,  while  in  the  adjoin- 
ing one,  Marion,  Susie   Beadle,  Florence  and  I 


26     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

were  an  unseen  audience.  After  singing,  he  be- 
gan his  sermon  thus:  My  text  is:  'God  made 
everything.'  Then  the  congregation  evidently 
falling  short  of  his  ideas  as  to  church  etiquette, 
for  his  tone  of  reproof  was  very  decided,  '  Grace, 
people  do  not  stick  their  legs  out  in  the  aisle  in 
church-time.'  After  the  discussion,  which  this 
remark  caused  (for  Grace  resented  the  criticism 
with  some  warmth)  had  ceased,  he  proceeded 
with  his  sermon,  '  My  hearers,  do  you  see  the 
blue  sky  above  us  ?  God  made  the  sky.  Do  you 
see  the  beautiful  green  grass  ?  God  made  the 
grass.  Do  you  see  those  trees  ?  God  made  those 
trees.  Do  you  see  that  stone-wall  beyond  them  ? 
God  made — no  He  didn't  either,  Ben  made  it;  I 
saw  him  myself.'  This  final  peroration  was  too 
much  for  his  unseen  audience  and  we  withdrew, 
lest  our  levity  should  hurt  the  feelings  of  preacher 
and  congregation,  so  we  did  not  hear  the  end  of 
the  services." 


There  is  one  innocent  reminiscence  of  the  boy's 
experience  at  the  Centennial  Exposition  in  1876: 

"  Horace's  only  remembrance,  I  think,  of  the 
Centennial  was  his  being  lost  in  the  crowd.  He 
was  found  crying  bitterly  but  was  able  to  give 
his  address,  1824  DeLancey  Place,  and  was 
brought  home  about  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
before  his  mother  and  I  knew  that  he  had  been 
lost.  A  policeman  brought  him  home.  Uncle 
John  (Yale)  and  his  wife  had  taken  Horace  with 
them.  They  had  been  there  all  day.  They  set 
Horace  down  and  told  him  not  to' go  away  till 
they  came  for  him.  They  were  away  less  than 
ten  minutes  and  to  their  consternation,  he  was 
not   where  they   had  seated  him.     He  became 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  27 

frightened  and  wandered  off;  thought  they  were 
not  coming  back  for  him." 

Something  has  been  said  of  his  mechanical  in- 
genuity. He  and  another  boy  set  up  a  telephone 
system  between  their  homes  on  DeLancey  Place 
and  Spruce  Street.  They  also  printed,  when  he 
was  twelve  years  old,  a  newspaper,  copies  of 
which  Horace  had  with  him  in  China.  *'  I  recall," 
writes  one, ' '  his  putting  up  in  his  father's  bedroom, 
a  contrivance,  by  means  of  pulleys  on  the  ceiling, 
by  which  his  father  could  unlock  his  door  at  a 
certain  hour  in  the  morning,  without  getting  out 
of  bed.  This  scheme  was  a  surprise  to  his  father 
and  pleased  him  very  much.  His  education  was 
first  through  a  nursery  governess,  later  tutors  and 
Latm  School  and  later  still,  Exeter  where  he  pre- 
pared for  Yale.  He  was  a  good  student  and  loved 
to  know  things  and  was  interested  in  everything. 
He  was  very  intense  in  everything  he  did  and 
used  to  work  hard  at  his  books.  Another  thing 
which  I  recall  was  the  father's  gift  of  twenty-five 
dollars  at  Christmas  time  to  each  child,  with  the 
understanding  that  one-half  of  it  was  to  be  spent 
for  charitable  purposes,  thus  early  training  them 
into  the  joy  and  privilege  of  helping  others  and 
of  giving  of  their  own." 

So  he  lived  his  simple,  sincere  life  in  earnest- 
ness and  joy.  "He  had  a  healthy,  happy  boy- 
hood," writes  his  aunt,  **like  most  boys,  there 
was  nothing  remarkable.  He  was  a  straightfor- 
ward, nice  boy."     **  Horace's  boyhood  was  like 


28     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

that  of  many  other  boys,"  says  Mr.  Ellsworth, 
President  of  the  Cm/z/rv  Company,  **and  there 
was  nothing  about  it  which  we  can  recall  which 
showed  any  special  tendency,  except  that  he  was 
always  a  good  boy."  And  President  Eliot  writes, 
"We  retain  only  the  general  impression  of  his 
sweet  and  sincere  character  and  manner  when  a 
boy."  His  father's  business  partner  remembers 
him  as  **a  retiring  child  in  his  contact  with  older 
people,  so  that,"  as  he  adds,  "I  saw  but  little  of 
him — in  fact,  he  was  so  devoted  to  his  mother 
that  he  was  not  very  much  seen  except  in  her 
company  until  the  time  arrived  for  leaving  home 
for  school,  and  after  that,  I  saw  him  very  in- 
frequently. After  his  father's  death,  I  saw  more 
of  him  and  it  goes  without  saying  that  I  became 
very  much  attached  to  him  and  grew  to  have  a 
high  admiration  for  his  sterling  character  and 
manly  ways,  always  modest  and  unassuming,  but 
plainly  displaying  the  quiet  and  sterling  charac- 
teristics of  his  mother,  who  was,  I  think,  one  of 
the  most  devoted  and  lovely  women  I  have  ever 
known." 

A  fuller  account  of  Horace's  character  as  a  boy, 
running  on  however  into  his  later  life,  is  furnished 
by  his  cousin  the  Rev.  Heber  H.  Beadle  of  Bridge- 
ton,  New  Jersey.  Mr.  Beadle's  father,  the  Rev. 
Elias  R.  Beadle,  was  a  missionary  to  the  Druses 
in  Syria  from  1839  to  1842.  War  among  the 
Druses  made  work  impossible,  and  he  returned 
to  America  and  was  for  many  years  a  Presbyterian 
pastor  first  in  Hartford  and  afterwards  in  Phila* 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  29 

delphia.  His  home  in  Hartford  constantly  had 
missionary  guests  in  it  and  as  Mr.  Heber  Bea- 
dle's account  indicates,  it  was  some  word  of 
his  father's  that  led  Horace  into  the  deeper  pur- 
poses of  his  life: 

'*  From  childhood,  Horace  was  gifted  with  rare 
graces  and,  without  effort,  he  won  the  love  of  all 
with  whom  he  came  into  contact.  As  a  boy,  he 
respected  himself  and  seemed  to  know,  instinc- 
tively, what  was  right  to  do  and  knowing  it,  he 
did  it.  I  do  not  remember  that  in  all  of  his  boy- 
hood he  ever  did  anything  that  gained  for  him 
serious  rebuke,  and  yet  he  was  a  boy  all  over,  just 
like  others,  full  to  overflowing  with  appreciation 
of  fun  and  humor  which  made  him  the  pleasant 
companion  he  always  was.  He  hated  meanness 
and  everything  that  was  underhanded  and  could 
not  understand  how  any  one  else  could  be  mean. 
He  was  apt  to  think  that  every  one  was  as  true 
and  open  as  himself. 

*'  He  never  was  what  could  be  called  an  intense 
student.  He  did  not  love  books  for  books'  sake; 
he  never  applied  himself  to  learning  because  it 
was  a  delight  to  him,  but  both  as  boy  and  man, 
if  there  was  anything  that  ought  to  be  learned  or 
that  he  ought  to  learn,  he  set  himself  to  work 
with  diligence  and  mastered  it,  but  he  was  glad 
when  the  task  was  done. 

"  He  was  a  young  man  of  strong  convictions, 
but  very  gentle  in  urging  them  upon  others,  win- 
ning his  way  to  the  end  he  desired  by  quiet  per- 
sistence. 

*'ltwas  his  ambition  to  take  up  for  his  life 
work,  the  study  of  electricity  and  its  application 
to  the  needs  of  the  times.  He  might  have  made 
a  great  success  of  it,  for  he  had  an  unusual  apti- 


30     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

tude  in  that  direction.  Some  words  spoken  to  him 
by  his  uncle,  the  Rev.  Eiias  R.  Beadle,  turned  his 
thoughts  towards  the  ministry  as  being  the  high- 
est calling  to  which  any  man  could  dare  hope  to 
be  called  in  this  life,  and  it  flashed  over  him  that 
it  might  be  God's  will  that  he  should  give  up  his 
ambition  and  take  up  this  work  in  God's  service. 
He  gave  the  matter  much  thought  and  after  many 
questionings  with  himself  and  much  prayer  that 
he  might  be  guided  to  do  just  exactly  what  God 
wanted  of  him  in  the  matter,  he  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  he  must  enter  the  ministry.  He,  at 
once,  turned  away  from  what  had  been  the  am- 
bition of  his  life  and  began  to  prepare  for  preach- 
ing Christ. 

''While  engaged  in  his  work  of  preparation, 
some  words  unconsciously  dropped  from  a  cousin, 
also  a  minister,  turned  his  thoughts  to  the  foreign 
field  as  the  place  where  his  future  work  ought  to 
be  laid  out.  That  part  of  the  field  which  seemed 
to  him  the  most  urgent  in  its  needs  was  Africa, 
but  he  put  himself  in  God's  hands  and  held  him- 
self in  readiness  to  go  anywhere  in  all  the  world 
where  God  wanted  him.  When  the  needs  of  the 
China  field  were  pressed  upon  him,  he  was  as 
willing  to  go  to  China  as  to  Africa. 

"It  did  not  matter  to  him  on  what  spot  of  the 
earth  God  had  need  of  his  service,  so  only  he 
could  do  God's  will  and  work. 

"Many  of  his  friends  were  opposed  to  his  giv- 
ing himself  to  foreign  work  and  pleaded  with 
him  to  remain  at  home,  giving  many  good  reasons 
for  their  pleas,  but  he  was  true  to  his  convictions 
and  though  knowing  well  the  opposition  and 
what  he  was  giving  up,  he  kept  quietly  unmoved 
in  his  determination  to  go. 

"  During  his  summer  vacations  spent  at  the  old 
family  homestead  in  New  Hartford,  Conn.,  he 
was  accustomed  to  withdraw  himself  from  the 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  31 

groups  of  friends  who  always  wanted  him,  for  an 
hour's  study  of  the  Bible  and  for  thought  and 
prayer.  The  picture  of  him  alone  under  the  great 
ash  with  his  Bible  in  hand  will  be  a  living  mem- 
ory to  us  for  many  a  year. 

**  After  this  hour  he  would  come  back  to  us 
with  shining  face  and  ready  for  anything  required 
of  him,  whether  for  a  frolic  or  work  on  the  farm. 
He  seemed  to  be  always  ready  heart  and  will,  for 
any  demand  made  upon  him.  He  did  much  in 
the  way  of  driving  over  the  hills  of  New  Hart- 
ford and  arranging  for  Sabbath  afternoon  services 
to  be  held  under  the  maples  or  on  a  neighboring 
farm,  so  that  the  many  who  never  thought  to  go 
to  church  in  the  valley  might  be  allured  to  an  out- 
door service.  He  never  tired  of  this  and  when  he 
spoke  he  compelled  the  attention  and  interest  of 
old  and  young  as  few  of  us  seemed  able  to 
do. 

*'  He  was  thoroughly  in  earnest  in  all  he  did, 
whether  it  was  the  singing  of  a  college  song  to 
give  us  pleasure,  who  never  grew  weary  of  hear- 
ing him,  or  the  cutting  out  of  the  worms'  nests 
from  the  apple  trees  in  the  hot  summer  days. 

"  He  was  ready  for  everything,  either  work  or 
play,  and  was  a  thorough  life-full  boy,  but  as 
thorough  a  Christian  at  the  same  time.  With  all 
the  ambitions  and  love  of  life  and  its  pleasures 
that  other  young  men  are  born  with,  he  was  a 
Christian  in  the  highest  and  best  sense  and  every 
one  knew  it. 

"  Man  and  boy,  he  was  sans  peur  et  sans  re- 
proche. 

"We,  who  so  loved  him,  thank  God  for  him, 
for  his  glorious  life  and  for  his  glorious  death  in 
defense  of  helpless  women.  It  was  like  him, 
through  and  through,  to  give  his  life  for  them. 
He  counted  it  as  nothing  so  long  as  he  was 
doing  God's   will,  and  he  knew  what  he  was 


32     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

doing  was  the  will  of  God.  We  would  not  have 
had  him  do  otherwise." 

This  sketch  of  his  boyhood  character  antici- 
pates, however,  the  sober  development  of  after 
years.     But  there  was  no  rupture  in  Horace's  life. 

"  E'en  as  he  trod  that  day  to  God  so  walked  he  from  his  birth 
In  simpleness  and  gentleness  and  honor  and  clean  mirth." 

When  he  began  to  go  to  school  in  Philadelphia, 
he  went  to  the  Rugby  Latin  School.  While  still 
in  the  school,  he  connected  himself  with  the 
Junior  Department  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  at  the  Central  Building,  Chestnut  and 
Fifteenth  Streets,  where  he  is  remembered  as  a 
boy  "  full  of  fun  and  with  generous  impulses." 

In  the  autumn  of  1884  he  entered  Phillips  Acad- 
emy at  Exeter,  New  Hampshire.  The  Rev. 
George  E.  Street,  pastor  of  the  Phillips  Church  at 
Exeter  and  formerly  a  member  of  the  congrega- 
tion of  Horace's  uncle,  Mr.  Sherman,  at  Nauga- 
tuck,  in  a  sermon  preached  at  a  memorial  service 
in  Exeter  in  the  fall  of  1900,  recalled  the  coming 
of  the  boy  to  Exeter  and  his  pronounced  and 
courageous  Christian  character. 

**  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin  was  a  dozen  years  ago  a 
boy  in  '  Phillips  Exeter '  of  high-bred,  manly  in- 
stincts, brave  and  courageous,  without  thinking 
of  it, — popular  in  the  best  sense  because  he  sin- 
cerely loved  his  fellow-students  and  offered  them 
so  much  to  love  in  his  own  transparent  nature, 
ready  sympathy  and  winsome  personality.  One 
read  his  character  in  his  clear,  open  eye,  entire 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  33 

frankness  of  manner  with  the  unconscious  stamp 
of  culture  and  true  nobility  in  his  address.  His 
usually  radiant  face  spoke  of  a  happy  disposition. 
At  times,  he  was  the  gayest  of  the  gay,  ready  for 
any  innocent  mirth  or  frolic.  At  other  times,  his 
look  was  serious  beyond  his  years,  with  an  added 
dreaminess  of  expression,  as  if  his  thoughts  had 
carried  him  wholly  out  of  himself  and  his  sur- 
roundings into  the  realm  of  the  ideal,  where 
every  noble  dreamer  lives  sometimes.  He  was 
fond  of  music  and  a  good  musician.  *  A  good 
all  round  student '  was  the  rating  the  principal, 
Dr.  Scott,  gave  him  in  my  hearing  one  day.  Of 
too  slight  a  build  for  heavy  athletics,  he  delighted 
in  tennis,  and  in  it  excelled.  Possessing  large 
means,  he  squandered  nothing  on  personal  vices, 
for  he  had  none,  while  snobbishness  was  for- 
eign to  him.  Our  acquaintance  began  at  the 
opening  of  the  school  year  in  1885.  Glanc- 
ing down  at  the  new  boys  in  the  students' 
pews  in  the  old  Second  Church,  one  eager 
face  met  mine,  *  Horace  Pitkin '  I  mentally  ob- 
served, meaning  the  father  in  Philadelphia 
and  not  the  boy  whose  face  bore  his  stamp  so 
vividly.  My  surmise  was  correct;  he  was  the 
son  of  one  I  had  occasionally  met  in  my  early 
manhood  while  he  was  on  visits  to  his  brother- 
in-law  (Rev.  Charles  S.  Sherman,  of  Naugatuck), 
my  own  pastor  in  Connecticut.  My  interest  in 
this  boy  was  met  with  a  naturalness  and  cordial- 
ity I  wish  was  more  ':ommon  in  boys  coming 
hither  in  their  intercourse  with  their  pastors.  A 
few  Sundays  later,  as  I  was  leaving  church,  this 
boy  leaned  forward  from  the  Students'  Bible 
Class  to  speak  to  me.  *  Would  it  be  possible  for 
him  to  unite  with  the  church  at  the  communion 
service  that  afternoon  with  those  I  had  announced 
as  about  to  confess  their  faith  ? '  I  replied,  '  It 
was  usual  to  have  an  examination  beforehand  by 


34     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

the  Church  Committee.'  A  shadow  passed  over 
his  face  and  he  looked  down  in  silence.  Draw- 
ing him  apart  into  a  pew  by  ourselves,  1  soon 
learned  that  he  had  set  his  heart  on  beginning  his 
Exeter  school  life  as  an  avowed  Christian.  With- 
out further  tests  of  his  discipleship,  and  calling  to 
mind,  as  Paul  did  with  Timothy,  his  pious  lineage, 
the  unfeigned  faith  of  his  father  and  his  sainted 
mother,  and  of  his  grandfather,  Deacon  Pitkin,  of 
Manchester,  Conn.,  of  blessed  memory,  1  felt  con- 
vinced that  here  was  a  child  of  many  prayers 
which  have  come  to  fruitage  so  early.  He  must 
come  into  the  church  and  he  must  come  to-day. 
"  More  impressive  as  to  numbers  admitted  have 
been  other  sacramental  seasons,  but  none  more 
so  as  I  think  of  the  subjects  themselves.  For 
between  two  aged  men  (Alfred  Conner  and  Col. 
Coggswell  Green,  seventy-two  and  seventy-eight 
years  of  age)  stood  up  this  youth  of  sixteen  to 
assent  to  the  ancient  creed  of  the  Church,  and  to 
enter  into  covenant  with  it.  So  was  fulfilled  that 
day  the  prophecy,  '  I  will  pour  out  of  My  Spirit 
and  your  young  men  shall  see  visions  and  your 
old  men  shall  dream  dreams.'  I  am  so  circum- 
stantial in  this  account  because  I  deem  it  the  crit- 
ical period  of  his  Christian  experience.  Had  he 
in  coming  to  a  great  school  like  this,  hidden  as 
some  do,  his  light  of  previous  religious  convic- 
tions and  training  under  a  bushel,  it  would  have 
only  flickered,  even  if  it  did  not  go  out.  His  was 
put  on  a  candlestick,  and  it  gave  light  to  all 
around  not  only,  but  far  onward  over  his  own 
great  career.  He  was  at  once  a  revelation  to  me 
how  helpful  a  young  Christian  could  be  in  a  new 
place.  The  Christian  Endeavor  movement  soon 
started  in  our  church.  He  came  into  it  as  one  of 
its  active  members,  and  most  heartily.  It  was  a 
joy  to  see  him  enter  one  of  its  meetings;  not 
slipping  into  a  back  seat,  but  coming  to  the  front 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  35 

with  a  nod  and  smile  of  greeting,  and  then  mak- 
ing it  his  business  to  see  that  every  one  had  a 
hymn  book  and  was  well  seated.  He  naturally 
became  the  first  president.  All  the  Young  Peo- 
ple's Societies  of  the  town  were  then  newly 
tormed  and  aggressive.  They  joined  in  efforts 
to  banish  the  then  existing  saloons,  and  no  pic- 
ture comes  to  me  more  vividly  than  one  of  these 
great  gatherings  filling  a  large  church,  with  Pit- 
kin as  Chairman,  presiding  with  the  dignity  of  a 
senator." 

One  of  Pitkin's  classmates  recalled  in  a  letter  to 
a  friend  after  Horace's  death,  the  outlines  of  his 
course  at  Exeter: 

"  How  very  sad  it  is  about  Pitkin!  It  is  almost 
impossible  for  me  to  realize  that  I  really  shall 
never  more  be  able  to  talk  with  him.  The  first 
year  I  was  more  intimate  with  him  than  any  one 
else,  except  possibly  yourself  and  Blair.  He  used 
to  spend  most  of  the  time  between  recitations  in 
old  No.  19  Abbott  Hall,  with  H.  P.  Blair  and  me. 
We  used  to  lie  on  the  bed  and  grind  and  jolly 
each  other  day  after  day.  He  gave  me  a  small 
card  photo  of  himself  of  that  date,  1884,  and  1 
remember  him  better  as  he  looked  then,  than  at 
the  time  of  the  class  picture.  1  used  to  be  noted 
for  my  penmanship,  you  remember,  so  his  print- 
like vertical  writing  always  filled  me  with  envi- 
ous admiration. 

"  He  was  long  monitor  at  the  Second  Congre- 
gational Church  and  for  three  years  prominent  in 
Christian  Fraternity  matters,  the  senior  year  being 
president.  .  .  .  His  was  a  very  wholesome 
religious  life  at  Exeter.  There  was  no  cant  about 
it.  He  was  jolly  as  well  as  good.  He  seemed  to 
feel  that  his  influence  for  Christ  and  the  Church 


36     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

would  be  the  greater  if  he  were  not  ultra  sancti- 
monious. 1  feel  sure  he  not  only  was  a  better 
fellow  as  his  course  progressed,  but  that  he 
steadily  advanced  in  popularity  among  us,  his 
classmates,  who  certainly  at  that  time  were  not 
as  a  mass  especially  characterized  by  our  piety. 
You  will  perhaps  recall  that  at  first  we  were  in- 
clined to  class  him  with  the  '87'  sanctissimi. 
Of  the  Christian  Fraternity  fellows,  I  think  Pitkin 
was  by  far  the  most  generally  liked  and  respected. 
He  was  for  three  years  prominent  in  Golden 
Branch  affairs,  the  last  term  succeeding  me  as 
President  of  the  Society.  Upon  graduating, 
therefore,  he  was  President  of  the  Golden  Branch 
and  of  the  Christian  Fraternity  and  possibly  of  the 
Y.  P.  S.  C.  E.  The  only  thing  that  I  considered 
ever  reflected  upon  him  was  his  intimacy  with 
old  Scotty,  with  whom  he  used  often  to  dine." 

"Scotty"  was  Principal  Scott  of  the  academy 
and  this  jocose  criticism  testifies  to  the  boy's 
gravity  and  reality  of  character  in  that  he  was  on 
such  terms  of  respect  and  self-respect  with  the 
head  of  the  school.  Indeed  the  friend  to  whom 
these  recollections  were  sent,  remembers  Pitkin's 
standing  with  his  teachers  as  well  as  with  his 
fellows  with  satisfaction: 

"  He  was  always  an  industrious  and  successful 
student  and  throughout  the  course,  stood  fre- 
quently among  the  first  five  scholars  in  his  class, 
and  I  think  was  never  outside  of  the  first  ten. 
He  was  one  of  the  earliest  men  from  his  class 
elected  into  the  Golden  Branch  Literary  Society, 
the  oldest  established  and  best  known  literary 
society  in  the  academy.  He  was  fond  of  music 
— played  both  the  piano  and  the  organ  and  sang, 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  37 

and  for  these  reasons,  as  well  as  for  his  general 
activity,  he  was  always  depended  upon  to  take 
a  leading  part  in  religious  activities  of  student  life. 
He  was  never  priggish,  and  had  the  sincere  re- 
spect and  liking  of  his  classmates. 

"He  was  never  particularly  active  in  athletics 
but  played  a  very  fair  game  of  tennis  and  was 
devoted  to  that  sport.  His  rooms  were  in  a 
private  house  not  far  away  from  the  academy 
yard,  and  as  he  was  always  most  hospitable,  his 
rooms  were  often  the  gathering  place  for  many 
of  his  friends  between  recitations,  especially  if 
his  friends  lived  at  some  distance. 

"On  the  whole,  his  career  at  Exeter  was  not 
brilliant  but  it  was  essentially  steady  and  pro- 
gressive. He  made  constant  advance  in  develop- 
ment of  his  own  character  and  in  the  esteem  of 
the  best  men  in  his  class  and  of  the  faculty." 

Horace's  life  at  Exeter  gave  him  his  first 
stringent  testing  and  discipline.  There  he  was 
thrown  as  he  had  not  been  before,  with  fellows 
who  smoked  and  drank  and  some  whose  talk 
was  not  the  talk  of  a  gentleman  and  a  Christian. 
As  his  classmates  have  testified,  he  was  no  prig 
and  he  wanted  to  go  with  other  men  and  share 
their  ways.  But  he  drew  the  line  at  habits  of 
which  he  did  not  approve,  which  he  regarded 
not  as  manly  but  as  enslaving  and  he  took  his 
stand  good-naturedly  but  with  characteristic 
decision.  He  had  grown  up  in  cleanness  and 
honor.  He  simply  acted  according  to  his  nature. 
In  one  of  his  essays.  Dr.  Trumbull  tells  of  an  old 
Connecticut  farmer  whose  son  was  about  to  seek 
his  fortune  in  the  city.    The  evening  before  he  was 


38     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

to  go,  the  father  took  him  for  a  last  walk  and  talk 
over  the  place  where  the  boy  had  spent  his  life. 
They  went  over  the  familiar  paths  in  silence,  all 
the  memories  of  his  past  education  in  righteous- 
ness and  purity  of  soul  sweeping  in  wave  after 
wave  over  the  boy  as  he  walked  beside  his  fa- 
ther, until  at  last  they  returned  to  the  garden  gate 
again.  Then  the  old  man  turned  to  his  son,  laid 
his  hand  on  his  shoulder  and  said,  "John,  I  have 
only  one  thing  to  say  to  you.  Always  do  as  you 
have  a  mind  to."  The  boy  needed  no  more. 
His  only  peril  lay  in  doing  as  others  had  a  mind 
for  him.  If  he  acted  according  to  the  integrity 
and  honor  of  his  own  mind,  schooled  under  the 
godly  manliness  of  that  old  father,  he  was  safe 
and  free.  When  he  entered  Exeter,  Horace 
Pitkin  had  his  own  mind  and  he  did  according  to 
it.  Though  of  course,  some  sneered  at  his 
'* goodness,"  he  abode  by  his  principles  and  in 
the  respect  of  right  men. 

The  Christian  Fraternity  at  Exeter  was  not 
popular  when  Pitkin  entered  the  academy  but  he 
had  the  courage  to  identify  himself  with  it  and 
to  do  what  he  could  to  make  it  popular  in  a  right 
sense  and  useful  and  influential  in  the  school. 
Towards  the  close  of  his  stay  at  Exeter,  he  was 
one  of  two  delegates  sent  by  the  Fraternity  to 
visit  the  Society  of  Inquiry  at  Phillips  Academy, 
Andover.  There  was  a  good  deal  of  bad  feeling 
between  the  two  academies.  Trouble  had 
arisen  over  athletics  and  the  school  papers  were 
busy  scolding  one  another.     The   issue  of  the 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  39 

Phillipian,  the  Andover  paper,  for  Nov.  2,  1887, 
which  contains  a  friendly  notice  of  the  visit  of 
the  delegation  from  Exeter,  has  also  a  two- 
column  editorial,  beginning  with  the  sentence: 
"The  Exonian  comes  up  whining  as  usual  after 
defeat.  Never  in  the  history  of  the  two  schools 
has  Exeter  been  able  to  take  defeat  gracefully," 
and  closing,  '*  We  feel  that  we  have  reached  that 
point  where  forbearance  ceases  to  be  a  virtue 
and  if  the  Exonian  wants  a  few  cold  facts  con- 
cerning the  relative  claims  of  Andover  and  Exeter 
men  to  the  title  of  gentleman,  we  think  we  have 
them  at  our  command  and  will  be  pleased  to 
produce  them  if  the  controversy  is  continued." 
This  will  suffice  to  explain  the  tone  of  the 
reference  to  this  visit  by  an  old  Andover  man, 
whose  acquaintance  with  Pitkin  began  at  this 
time  and  who  became  one  of  his  classmates  at 
Yale: 


"  He  was  a  senior  at  Exeter,  and  I  a  senior  at 
Andover.  He  was  doing  foreign  missionary 
work  then,  for  at  that  time  Exeter  boys  and 
Andover  boys  regarded  each  other  with  some- 
thing of  the  suspicion  and  hate  that  Boxer  feels 
for  •  foreign  devils.'  Before  that  time  the  boys 
of  the  two  schools  came  together  only  in  annual 
athletic  contests,  and  rancor  and  bitterness  were 
frequently  in  evidence  at  these  meets.  The  plan 
for  fellowship  between  the  Christian  students  of 
the  two  schools  was  receiving  its  first  trial  when 
Pitkin  and  another  member  of  the  Christian 
Fraternity  in  the  Exeter  Academy  visited  the 
Andover  Academy  as  guests  of  our  Society  of 


40     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Inquiry.  Well  I  remember  our  curiosity.  Two 
live  Exeter  men  who  were  not  *  muckers  '!  We 
more  than  half  suspected  them.  Society  Hall 
was  crowded.  I  think  all  were  impressed  with 
Pitkin's  earnest,  straightforward  and  simple 
manliness — I  know  I  was.  From  that  time 
Pitkin's  life  and  mine  have  been  curiously  in- 
tertwined." 


Pitkin  was  always  grateful  for  the  discipline  of 
Exeter,  the  strengthening  by  temptation  and  op- 
position and  the  help  of  sympathy  and  the  encour- 
agement of  good  friends.  In  1895,  he  wrote  to 
the  widow  of  his  old  Sunday-school  teacher  at 
Exeter  a  note  of  condolence  and  appreciation: 

"We  were  not  very  studious  or  patient  lads. 
He  always  was  patient  with  us.  To  his  influence 
at  that  time,  I  owe  much,  for  he  found  me  at  the 
moulding  period  of  a  man's  life.  Never  shall  I 
forget  his  plea  after  Mr.  Mills's  revival  that  we 
should  become  Christians.  I  think  that  it  was 
just  after  that,  I  did  join  the  church.  On  all  sides 
at  my  recent  visit,  did  I  hear  of  what  a  seemingly 
irremediable  loss  his  passing  on  was.  God  grant 
another  shall  have  his  mantle  fall  upon  him.  Yet 
his  work — how  much  grander  and  more  compre- 
hensive must  it  be  now  with  the  Father  than  it 
could  be  with  us,  for  how  otherwise  could  he 
have  been  translated!  In  his  going  on  before, 
may  we  take  of  the  influence  of  that  life  and 
press  on  to  follow  such  Christ-lived  lives  in  our 
turn— for  his  influence  must  not  and  cannot  die." 

Though  Horace  left  Exeter  in  1888,  he  revisited 


Ancestry  and  Boyhood  41 

the  place  frequently  during  his  college  and  semi- 
nary course  to  deepen  the  Christian  life  of  the 
school  and  to  kindle  interest  in  missions.  By  his 
life  in  the  academy  and  by  these  visits,  he  left  an 
abiding  impression.  "  Of  all  the  young  men 
who  have  been  under  our  church  care  here," 
said  the  pastor  of  the  Phillips  Church,  "I  can 
think  of  none  who  has  been  among  us  a  more 
beautiful  and  helpful  presence." 


II 

AT  YALE 

<*  DEDICATED 
To  the  beloved  viemory 

of 
A  Righteous  Man 

"  Who  loved  God  and  truth  above  all  things. 
A  man  of  untarnished  honor  — 
Loyal  and  chivalrous — gentle  and  strong  — 
Modest  and  humble — tender  and  true  — 
Pitiful  to  the  weak — yearning  after  the  erring  — 
Stern  to  all  forms  of  wrong  and  oppression, 
Yet  most  stern  towards  himself — 
"Who  being  angry  yet  sinned  not, 
"Whose  highest  virtues  were  known  only 
To  his  wife,  his  children,  his  servants  and  the  poor, 
"Who  lived  in  the  presence  of  God  here. 
And  passing  through  the  grave  and  gate  of  death 
Now  liveth  unto  God  forevermore." 
Dedication  of  the  Life  of  Charles  Kings  ley,  by  his  wife. 

In  the  fall  of  1888,  Pitkin  entered  Yale.  He 
threw  himself  into  the  joys  of  his  new  life,  and 
entered  at  once  actively  into  the  Christian  work 
of  the  university.  At  the  beginning  of  his  course 
he  became  a  teacher  in  the  Bethany  Mission  Sun- 
day-school, and  during  his  senior  year  he  was 
superintendent.  His  successor  as  superintend- 
ent, Mr.  Charles  G.  Trumbull,  managing  editor 

42 


At  Yale  43 

of  The  Sunday-School  Times,  writes  of  Pitkin's 
spirit  of  work  in  the  school,  and  incidentally 
brings  out  his  growing  positiveness,  and  even 
insistence  of  character  and  conviction: 

'*  I  rejoice  that  I  had  the  privilege  of  working 
with  him  in  the  Bethany  Mission  Sunday-school. 
It  was  impossible  not  to  be  impressed  there  as 
elsewhere  with  what  1  believe  were  the  dominant 
characteristics  of  the  man,  for  he  seemed  a  man 
to  me  then,  and  far  beyond  me  in  maturity  and 
experience.  It  was  easy  to  see  his  steady  growth 
in  seriousness  and  earnestness  and  intensity  in 
what  I  believe  was  his  passion  for  souls,  as  the 
college  years  went  on.  ,       ,  , 

**  He  was  a  skillful  worker  with  others.  1  re- 
member the  genuine,  complete  surprise  that  over- 
came me  when  he  suggested  to  me  one  day, 
towards  the  close  of  my  junior  year— his  senior 
year  at  Yale,  that  he  would  like  to  see  me  suc- 
ceed him  as  superintendent  of  the  Bethany  Mis- 
sion. After  he  had  once  brought  the  matter 
before  me,  however,  I  then  realized  for  the  first 
time  that  for  months  past  he  had  been  quietly 
but  persistently  '  working  me  in,'  and  famihariz- 
ing  me  with  the  duties  of  the  superintendency, 
yet  doing  it  so  tactfully  and  naturally  that  I  had 
not  suspected  his  real  object  until  he  finally  men- 
tioned it  to  me.  .     _,    .    . 

**  With  all  his  intensity  of  interest  in  Christian 
work,  he  was  a  healthy,  whole-souled  being, 
throwing  himself  heartily  into  whatever  he  was 
doing  at  the  time.  His  laugh  was  spontaneous 
and  irresistible.  At  the  social  gatherings  of  the 
Sunday-school  or  of  the  teachers  by  themse  ves, 
he  was  the  centre  of  merriment  and  good  feehng. 
There  was  nothing  of  the  ascetic  or  hermit  about 


44     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

him.  He  was  liked  by  both  men  and  women, 
and  respected  by  both." 

Others  were  helped  by  Pitkin's  devotion  to  his 
Christian  work.  A  classmate  recalls  as  one  of 
the  most  impressive  experiences  of  his  course,  a 
sight  into  Pitkin's  affection  for  a  Sunday-school 
class: 

"A  little  incident  which  gives  me  the  most 
vivid  recollection  of  him  may  be  of  interest.  It 
was  during  our  last  few  days  at  Yale,  that  I  met 
him  one  Sunday  afternoon  on  the  campus,  weep- 
ing. 'Why,  Pit,  what's  the  matter.?''  'O,'  he 
said,  '  I   have  just  been  saying  good-bye  to  my 

class  of  boys  at church.     We  have  grown 

so  fond  of  each  other  that  I  can't  bear  to  leave 
them.'  To  me,  in  my  selfish  way,  thinking  of 
myself  alone,  this  was  a  revelation.  Here  this 
man  had  sacrificed  his  time  and  energy  to  those 
boys,  and  was  weeping  because  he  could  not  con- 
tinue to  do  so.  Did  he  wear  an  air  of  '  I'm  doing 
this  thing  for  my  reward  in  this  world  and  the 
next '  ?  No  indeed.  You  knew  absolutely  with 
him  that  the  guiding  force  was  to  do  good  from 
pure  love  of  his  fellow-men,  and  to  me,  as  I  said, 
it  was  a  revelation,  a  startling  proof  of  the  good 
of  Christ's  teaching.  I  know  of  nothing  in  all 
my  college  course  that  did  me  half  the  good, 
morally,  that  meeting  Pit  that  Sunday  afternoon 
did." 

It  is  significant  of  Pitkin's  capacity  for  "tying 
things  up  "  and  securing  definiteness  of  purpose 
that  when  he  became  superintendent  of  the  Beth- 
any school,  there  appears  in  the  secretary's  re- 
port of  the  school  for  '91  and  '92,  in  Pitkin's 


At  Yale  45 

handwriting,  the  following  sentence,  signed  by 
all  the  officers,  no  such  entry  appearing  before: 

"We,  the  undersigned  officers  and  teachers 
of  Bethany  Sabbath-school  Society,  hereby  ex- 
press our  desire  to  support  and  further  the  inter- 
ests of  the  school  during  the  ensuing  year  to  the 
best  of  our  ability,  according  to  the- constitution 
adopted  June  27,  1863,  and  the  amendments  to 
the  same  adopted  October,  1887." 

In  addition  to  his  work  in  the  Bethany  Sunday- 
school,  he  was  interested  in  the  Grand  Avenue 
Mission,  some  of  whose  work  included  the  effort 
to  reach  ** drunkards  and  dead  beats."  "He 
stands  very  vividly  before  me  now,"  writes  a 
Yale  man,  "  as  he  leads  the  poor  fellows  in  singing 
'Throw  out  the  life  line,'  and  I  have  reason  to 
know  that  by  his  earnest,  personal  efforts,  some 
of  the  men  caught  the  life  line  which  he  flung 
out  to  them."  A  student  two  years  behind  him 
writes : 

"I  was  always  impressed  with  his  great  ear- 
nestness and  sincerity  in  Christian  work.  In  our 
prayer-meetings,  preparatory  to  our  '  little  excur- 
sion '  to  that  part  of  the  city  (Grand  Street  Mis- 
sion, New  Haven)  and  on  his  knees  pleading  for 
and  with  those  almost  lost  men,  he  showed  the 
same  zeal  for  the  Master's  work.  He  was  greatly 
respected  by  his  fellows  because  they  believed 
his  interest  was  genuine.  I  recall  one  instance 
when  we  had  induced  one  poor  fellow,  who  had 
seen  better  days,  to  brace  up  and  let  liquor  alone 
and  try  to  be  a  man  again.  He  came  on  the 
Campus  and  Horace  kept  him  in  his  room  a  few 


46     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

nights  on  the  window  seat.  Then  he  gave  him 
five  dollars  to  buy  some  better  clothes  with  and 
try  for  a  job." 


Pitkin's  roommate,  for  the  latter  half  of  his 
course,  was  Mr.  D.  T.  Huntington,  now  an  or- 
dained missionary  of  the  American  Episcopal 
Church  in  Ichang,  China.  Mr.  Huntington's  rec- 
ollections touch  on  Pitkin's  Christian  work  in  col- 
lege, but  cover  also,  sketched  with  loving  discern- 
ment, his  influence  and  the  growth  of  his  char- 
acter: 

"My  roommate  left  me  at  the  end  of  the  soph- 
omore year  and  somewhat  to  my  surprise,  Pit- 
kin asked  me  to  room  with  him.  I  felt  a  little 
doubt  about  it,  but  of  all  the  blessings  of  my  col- 
lege course,  I  count  my  intimacy  with  him  as  by 
far  the  greatest. 

**  As  a  student,  he  was  not  remarkable,  though 
taking  a  stand,  I  think,  somewhere  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  class.  His  genius  did  not  lie  in 
that  direction,  and  he  was  occupied  with  too 
many  other  things.  Neither  was  he  an  athlete. 
He  was  strong  and  played  a  good  game  of  ten- 
nis. Football  and  baseball  and  rowing  he  was 
moderately  fond  of  and  did  moderately  well.  He 
was  fond  of  sailing  and  if  I  remember  rightly, 
learned  to  swim  while  he  was  in  college. 

"In  music,  he  was  much  better.  He  had  a 
good  tenor  voice  and  sang  with  considerable  feel- 
ing. It  was  a  real  pleasure  to  hear  him  play  on 
the  piano,  and  many  a  pleasant  time  we  have  had 
listening  to  his  music,  and  that  of  one  or  two 
others,  in  spite  of  the  occasional  protests  of  other 
men  in  the  entry. 


At  Yale  47 

*'In  the  class  prayer-meetings,  he  was  one  of 
the  organists  and  a  leader  in  every  way.  I 
should  say  that  he  was  the  best  speaker  among 
us,  for  he  had  a  good  deal  of  the  orator  in  him 
and  was  on  tire  with  the  love  of  God,  and  all  the 
men  knew  that  whatever  he  said,  he  meant  from 
the  bottom  of  his  heart.  There  was  never  the 
least  suspicion  about  his  absolute  sincerity. 

"Another  of  his  activities  was  the  Bethany 
Sunday-school,  which  has  for  a  long  time  been 
under  the  care  of  Yale  students.  I  was  not  con- 
nected with  it,  so  cannot  speak  of  it  so  well  as 
some  others,  but  I  occasionally  took  a  class. 
Horace  was  superintendent  for  two  years,  and 
the  school  improved  greatly  during  that  time. 
In  the  first  place,  a  thorough  canvass  was  made  of 
the  neighborhood  to  secure  some  scholars,  and 
as  a  result  the  number  was  about  doubled.  Then 
the  discipline  was  considerably  improved.  Hor- 
ace was  a  good  disciplinarian,  and  I  don't  think 
small  boys  liked  to  have  him  look  at  them  hard. 
In  the  classes  the  children  were,  of  course,  occa- 
sionally refractory,  but  when  the  superintendent 
was  addressing  the  school,  never. 

"A  work  of  which  1  had  a  more  intimate 
knowledge  was  the  Grand  Avenue  Mission. 
There  for  two  years,  nearly  every  Sunday  night 
and  sometimes  during  the  week,  we  went.  Sun- 
day nights,  there  were  Evangelistic  services  in 
charge  of  a  classmate,  Mr.  A.  F.  Shaw,  now  a 
missionary  in  Brazil.  Horace  usually  played  the 
piano,  and  often  spoke.  In  the  after  meetings, 
he  was  always  trying  to  show  some  poor  drunk- 
ard the  Saviour.  He  and  the  rest  of  us  were 
taken  in  more  or  less  by  the  cheats  who  frequent 
such  places,  but  what  matter  ?  I  know  that  some 
of  those  men  will  thank  God  throughout  eternity 
that  Horace  Pitkin  showed  them  the  way  to  life. 

"  But  the  rnatter  in  which  he  was  most  inter^ 


48     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

ested,  and  to  which  he  gave  the  most  time  and 
thought  outside  the  reguhir  course  of  studies,  was 
foreign  missions.  The  Yale  Volunteer  Band 
was  one  of  the  most  energetic  organizations 
I  have  ever  known,  and  Horace  was  its  lead- 
ing spirit.  There  were  the  regular  weekly  meet- 
ings for  prayer  and  mission  study.  In  these 
meetings,  which  were  not  large  (there  were 
twenty-one  men  in  the  band  at  first,  and  there 
must  have  been  an  average  attendance  of  fifteen), 
there  was  an  earnestness  and  devotion  of  spirit 
which  I  have  never  seen  surpassed.  The  prayers 
for  all  lands  were  such  as  were  certainly  heard  on 
high,  and  they  have  left  a  lasting  impression  on 
the  minds  of  many.  Mission  study  courses  were 
not  then  in  existence,  but  much  genuine,  syste- 
matic study  was  done,  and  our  own  zeal  was 
kindled.  We  were  also  prepared  to  give  an  in- 
telligent answer  to  them  that  asked  a  reason  of 
the  faith  that  was  in  us, 

"A  Bible  training  class  was  carried  on  con- 
ducted by  two  future  secretaries  of  the  Volunteer 
Movement — Keller  and  Eddy  (not  then  a  vol- 
unteer)— and  myself.  Of  this  also  Horace  was 
the  guiding  spirit.  Special  meetings  for  prayer 
were  held  daily  at  certain  critical  times  when  we 
poured  out  our  souls  for  the  heathen  and  for  God's 
servants  who  would  not  hear  and  obey  His  com- 
mands. A  number  of  volunteers,  several  of 
whom  are  now  among  the  heathen,  resulted  from 
this. 

"Meetings  of  the  Young  People's  societies  in 
and  near  New  Haven,  were  addressed  by  mem- 
bers of  the  band.  Horace  originated  and  directed 
this  work,  and  was  always  the  best  speaker. 
But  I  recall  even  more  distinctly  than  these  other 
meetings,  the  meetings  of  the  executive  com- 
mittee of  three.  These  meetings  were  nearly  al- 
ways held  in  our  room,  and  although  I  was  not  a 


At  Yale  49 

member,  they  gave  me  the  privilege  of  sitting  on 
the  committee,  which  privilege  I  frequently  exer- 
cised. 1  can  see  Billy  Leverett  and  Billy  Beard, 
sitting  on  the  window  seat,  while  Horace  and  I 
were  contented  with  chairs.  There  we  worked 
out  plans  for  band  meetings  and  appointed  lead- 
ers, and  made  plans  for  the  Bible  Class  and  ar- 
rangements for  Young  People's  meetings  and 
talked  over  and  prayed  over  men  who  were  likely 
to  volunteer,  and  volunteers  who  were  getting 
cold.  There  humor  and  pathos  and  love  and  zeal 
all  shone  out  as  nowhere  else. 

"And  I  must  not  forget  Northfield.  How  we 
planned  and  worked  for  those  Northfield  meet- 
ings! And  when  we  were  there  the  fun  and 
the  work!  Everything  from  swimming  in  the 
river  and  tennis  and  baseball  and  Fourth  of  July 
celebrations,  and  a  water  fight  with  two  young 
freshmen  who  dared  to  disregard  our  seniority, 
to  the  glorious  meetings  in  the  Hall  or  on  Round 
Top,  and  the  little  meetings  for  prayer  in  private 
rooms  or  in  the  woods,  and  the  personal  work 
for  volunteers — all  came  to  him  naturally  and 
joyfully. 

"  But  back  of  these  somewhat  vague  reminis- 
cences stands  out  a  man  whom  I  cannot  draw — 
straight,  strong,  with  a  clear  eye  and  sensitive 
mouth,  whether  in  fun  or  in  earnest,  always 
doing  with  his  might  what  he  had  found  to  do. 
Perhaps  that  was  his  most  striking  characteristic. 
He  was  no  faultless  saint.  I  have  known  more 
gentle,  more  lovable  men,  greater  scholars, 
deeper  thinkers,  but  never  have  I  known  any  one 
with  such  power  of  translating  faith  into  action. 
With  him  to  believe,  was  to  do.  The  half  be- 
lief and  quarter  action  which  one  sees  and  feels 
daily  were  impossible  for  him.  I  do  not  think 
he  saw  the  way  with  as  grand  a  vision  as  some 
ipen,  but  none  followed  it  more  closely.     There 


50     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

was  a  lack  of  shading  in  his  character,  especially 
in  his  college  days.  We  kept  up  a  more  or  less 
regular  correspondence  throughout  his  life,  but 
from  1895,  when  I  sailed  for  China,  I  did  not  see 
him  again,  until  1899,  when  1  spent  two  weeks 
with  him  and  his  wife  and  little  son — one  of  the 
finest  boys  that  ever  was  and  much  what  his  fa- 
ther must  have  been  at  his  age.  The  shading 
was  beginning  to  appear.  None  of  the  strength 
was  gone,  but  there  was  a  delicacy  there  which 
had  not  always  been  his.  If  a  man  lives  in  ac- 
cordance with  his  faith,  it  is  only  a  question  of 
time  when  God  will  mold  him  into  perfect  like- 
ness with  Himself. 

"Then  came  that  awful  summer  of  1900  and 
'he  departed  to  be  with  Christ,  which  is  far 
better,'  not  the  least  among  the  many  heroes 
who  laid  down  their  lives  for  Christ  and  for 
China." 


These  Northfield  Conferences  which  have  been 
referred  to,  exerted  a  great  influence  on  Pitkin's 
life.  He  went  as  a  freshman  to  the  State  Con- 
vention of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations and  in  the  vacation  at  the  end  of 
the  freshman  year,  he  went  with  the  Yale 
delegation  to  Northfield  to  attend  the  Stu- 
dents' Conference  held  there  at  Mr.  Moody's 
invitation,  to  which  from  all  the  colleges  in  the 
Eastern  States,  five  hundred  of  the  best  men  came 
up  for  the  study  of  the  Bible,  for  athletic  sports 
and  for  an  honest  consideration  of  their  duty  to 
live  for  others  and  to  serve  the  world. 

Almost  every  summer,  thereafter,  Pitkin  at- 
tended these  Conferences.     It  was  at  the  first 


At  Yale  51 

one  he  attended  that  his  missionary  purpose  took 
final  shape,  and  expressed  itself  in  his  acceptance 
of  the  declaration  of  the  Student  Volunteer 
Movement,  which  at  that  time  read:  "I  am 
willing  and  desirous,  God  permitting,  to  be  a 
foreign  missionary."  How  he  came  to  take  this 
step,  he  explained  later  in  an  article  which  he 
wrote  for  the  Student  Volunteer  of  February, 
1896: 

*'0n  Round  Top,  at  the  Northfield  Summer 
School  of  1889,  I  signed  the  declaration.  For 
two  years  a  vague  idea  had  possessed  me  that  I 
might  possibly  become  a  missionary.  I  had 
learned  much  of  the  Volunteer  Movement  during 
the  Conference,  but  had  not  understood  the 
'card'  until  that  evening  when,  after  hearing  a 
careful  explanation,  I  made  the  decision.  Why 
did  I  make  it.?  Simply  because  I  could  not  see 
why  I  shouldn't.  The  question  came,  not  'Why 
purpose  to  go .? '  but  '  Why  not  purpose  to  go  } ' 
The  presumption  is  in  favor  of  foreign  missions. 
As  I  saw  nothing  that  stood  in  the  way  of  my 
accepting  the  challenge,  I  did  accept  it,  believing 
that  God  had  used  my  reasoning  powers  to  that 
end. 

"  I  had  just  finished  my  freshman  year  at  Yale. 
Of  course  at  that  time,  I  had  no  conception  of 
the  great  advantages  of  an  early  decision  which 
confront  the  student  of  to-day.  My  decision 
meant  to  me  that  I  had  taken  the  stand  and 
would  go  if  sent,  not  that  I  intended  to  move 
forward,  to  equip  myself  spiritually  and  Intel- 


52     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

lectually,  and  to  go  unless  the  way  should  be 
finally  blocked.  Multiplying  my  life  by  aiding 
others  to  find  the  Lord's  Will  in  conclusive 
thinking,  never  entered  into  my  head.  Of 
course,  objections  were  to  be  expected  from  the 
family,  yet  I  was  not  sure  but  that  an  early,  open 
decision,  and  a  life  consonant  with  it,  could  be 
used  mightily  in  battering  down  this  obstacle. 
(1  am  sure  of  it  now.)  So  I  allowed  the  months 
to  pass  by  before  giving  a  hint  at  home.  The 
state  of  the  Board's  finances  did  not  then  demand 
the  early  decision  that  it  does  now.  Moreover, 
my  ideas  of  mission  work  were  very  vague  and, 
which  was  worse,  no  organization,  such  as  now 
exists,  stood  ready  with  pamphlets,  books  and 
study  classes  to  guide  and  fortify  me,  a  new 
volunteer. 

**But  thanks  be  unto  God,  in  spite  of  all  this 
crudeness,  He  did  use  the  decision  so  that,  in  my 
senior  year,  Yale  had,  instead  of  one  volunteer 
and  myself,  a  band  of  twenty-four;  speaking 
had  been  started  in  Christian  Endeavor  Societies, 
and  my  own  life,  by  prayer  and  reading,  was 
more  true  to  the  purpose  which  the  Father  had 
implanted." 

On  returning  to  college  in  the  autumn,  he 
threw  himself  with  characteristic  earnestness 
into  the  work  of  interesting  other  men  in  the 
missionary  duty.  He  became  at  once  active  in 
the  work  of  the  ** Volunteer  Band"  of  which 
Mr.  Huntington  has  spoken  and  which  was  a 
little  company  of  men  loyally  devoted  to  the  pur- 


At  Yale  53 

pose  of  the  evangelization  of  the  world.  One  of 
Pitkin's  classmates,  N.  C.  Whittemore,  now  a 
Presbyterian  missionary  in  Syen-Chun,  Korea, 
writes  with  happy  memory  of  the  work  of  this 
Band: 

**  One  of  the  strongest  ways,  if  not  the  strong- 
est way,  in  which  he  impressed  me  during  the 
eight  years  1  knew  him  in  America,  was  by  his 
spirit  of  prayer.  Some  of  the  pleasantest  rec- 
ollections I  have  of  college  are  connected  with 
the  Band  meetings  in  the  semicircular  room  in 
Dwight  Hall,  especially  when  we  met  together 
for  prayer.  Of  these  meetings,  even  in  our 
sophomore  year,  Pitkin  was  the  heart  and  soul. 
There  we  learned  to  pray  for  the  work  and  for 
one  another  as  we  went  out  to  speak  in  the 
churches  in  a  way  that  most  of  us  had  never  done 

before. 

"Before  our  Sophomore  year  (1889-1890)  the 
Volunteer  Movement  had  had  practically  no  ex- 
istence in  New  Haven,  but  from  the  date  of  Pit- 
kin's volunteering,  it  took  on  new  life  and  al- 
though I  think  not  the  Band's  first  leader,  he  was 
always  the  leading  spirit  in  its  meetings  and 
work.  His  energy  and  enthusiasm  caught  at 
Northfield  were  always  an  incentive  to  those  of 
us  less  on  fire  for  the  work,  and  led  us  to  take  up 
the  study  of  missions  and  the  work  of  arousing 
the  interest  in  the  churches,  much  earherthan  we 
otherwise  would  have  done.  He  was  naturally 
an  organizer,  and  fine  executive,  which  qualities, 
too-ether  with  his  energy  and  enthusiasm,  made 
him  a  splendid  leader,  and  under  his  lead  the 
Band  did  a  very  good  work  amongst  the  churches 
of  the  vicinity.  On  these  errands,  we  always 
went  out  strong  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord,  for 
if  near  at  hand,  we  went  out  direct  from  prayer- 


54     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

meeting,  or  if  at  a  distance,  we  knew  the  Band 
at  New  Haven  was  praying  for  us  about  the  hour 
of  our  meeting. 

"  I  was  with  Pitkin  too,  in  New  York  at  Union, 
but  only  for  two  years,  as  he  stayed  out  a  year  to 
travel  in  the  interest  of  the  Volunteer  Movement. 
There  too,  his  indomitable  energy  and  enthusiasm 
made  itself  felt  at  once,  and  he  became  a  power 
in  the  missionary  life  of  the  seminary. 

"  During  our  last  two  years  in  college,  a  num- 
ber of  classmates  were  in  the  habit  of  gathering 
around  the  old  open  fire  in  Tibbit's  and  my 
room  in  the  old  Brick  Row,  of  a  Sunday  evening, 
and  on  those  occasions,  I  remember  he  was 
always  especially  welcome,  for  with  all  his  se- 
rious earnestness  for  the  work,  he  was  a  bright, 
genial  companion,  full  of  life  and  fun." 

Another  Yale  man,  who  went  out  as  a  mission- 
ary to  India,  and  who  was  in  the  Yale  Divinity 
School  during  the  latter  part  of  Pitkin's  college 
course,  writes: 

"  My  first  acquaintance  with  Pitkin  was  at  the 
time  that  the  Student  Volunteer  Band  was  formed 
at  Yale  in  1889.  We  soon  found  that  he  was  one 
of  the  most  earnest  and  enthusiastic  of  our  num- 
ber. 1  remember  especially  the  boyish  simplicity 
and  directness  of  his  prayers.  Those  little  mis- 
sion band  meetings  in  the  '  Semicircular  Room  ' 
at  Dwight  Hall  are  among  the  brightest  memories 
of  my  life  at  Yale.  Later,  when  1  was  in  the 
Divinity  School,  the  mission  bands  had  union 
meetings,  and  Pitkin  entered  into  them  with  the 
same  hearty  earnestness  and  zeal  which  char- 
acterized him  elsewhere.  It  was  there  that  he 
first  became  acquainted  with  G.  H.  Ewing,  with 
whom  he  was  afterwards  associated,  at  Paoting- 


At  Yale  S5 

fu.  I  believe  that  his  joyous,  consecrated  life 
quickened  the  missionary  spirit  of  the  theological 
students.  His  religion  was  of  the  robust,  hearty, 
healthy,  joyous  and  natural  kind;  the  variety 
which  has  the  most  influence  on  young  men.  1 
believe  that  all  of  us  who  knew  Pitkin  are  better 
men  for  it,  and  the  news  of  his  martyrdom  in 
China  has  increased  our  devotion  to  the  cause  to 
which  he  gave  his  life  so  that  *  he  being  dead,  yet 
speaketh.' " 

Among  those  who  felt  the  influence  of  Pitkin 
in  the  Band,  was  one  now  a  Presbyterian  mis- 
sionary in  Hwai  Yuen,  China,  the  Rev.  E.  C. 
Lobenstine,  who  writes: 

"As  I  had  made  up  my  mind  long  before  I 
entered  college  to  be  a  missionary,  I  naturally  on 
hearing  that  there  was  such  a  thing  as  the  S.  V. 
M.  in  existence,  and  that  the  volunteers  were 
meeting  weekly  in  Dwight  Hall,  sought  them  out, 
and  my  first  recollections  of  Horace  are  as  leader 
of  that  Band.  There  were  fifteen  or  twenty, 
most  of  them  seniors,  and  Horace  was  the  centre 
and  soul  of  the  group.  His  deep  earnestness  and 
whole  souled  devotion  to  the  great  cause  to  which 
he  had  given  his  life,  impressed  me  powerfully. 
I  had  never  before  met  a  young  man  whose  con- 
secration to  the  work  of  the  Master  was  so  entire. 
He  did  not  work  for  Christ  and  the  heathen  from 
any  sense  of  duty,  but  because  he  loved  to. 
Whatever  the  struggle  through  which  he  passed, 
when  he  made  his  decision  to  be  a  missionary, 
and  it  was  not  an  easy  one,  he  had  passed  out  of 
it  into  that  fullness  of  joy  that  comes  from  know- 
ing that  one  is  doing  God's  will. 

"  It  all  came  as  a  revelation  to  me  of  what  col- 


56     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

lege  Christianity  could  be,  and  from  my  first 
acquaintance  with  Horace,  I  was  attracted  to  him. 
Something  of  the  unbounded  admiration  and 
reverence  that  the  average  freshman  has  for  the 
captain  of  the  'Varsity  football  team  in  the  fall  of 
freshman  year,  I  had  for  him;  something  of  the 
same  pride  at  having  him  walk  across  the  Cam- 
pus with  me,  or  invite  me  to  his  room.  1  used  to 
watch  his  life  with  careful  scrutiny,  and  one  little 
incident  from  those  days  has  always  stuck  in  my 
memory.  It  was  then  the  custom  for  lady  visi- 
tors who  wished  to  attend  our  College  Chapel,  to 
sit  in  the  back  gallery.  Whenever  any  of 
these  were  present,  the  seniors,  on  rising  to  sing 
the  opening  chant,  would  turn  around  in  their 
seats  and  stand  with  their  backs  to  the  pulpit. 
From  my  position  in  the  gallery  I  could  see  Hor- 
ace, and  1  noticed  that  he  did  not  turn  around 
with  the  rest,  but  joined  with  the  choir  in  the 
morning  song  of  praise.  He  sang  as  though  his 
whole  soul  was  in  his  voice,  and  as  if  therewith 
he  was  really  praising  God.  The  attitude  was 
characteristic  of  his  entire  life.  He  put  his  whole 
heart  into  his  work,  and  God  always  seemed  very 
real  to  him.  He  lived  in  the  consciousness  of  the 
Divine  Nearness.  It  was  this  that  gave  the  tone 
to  his  life.  It  kept  him  ever  hopeful  amid  dis- 
couragements, and  never  allowed  the  flame  of 
his  enthusiasm  to  grow  dim.  During  his  college 
life,  it  made  him  untiring  in  his  zeal  for  awaken- 
ing among  his  fellow-students  a  sense  of  their 
responsibility  to  carry  the  blessings  they  had  re- 
ceived to  the  heathen  world;  and  it  sent  him 
forth  as  one  of  the  pioneers  in  trying  to  bring  a 
similiar  message  to  the  young  people  of  the 
churches.  He  early  caught  the  vision  of  the  latent 
power  for  missions  there  was  in  the  great  Chris- 
tian Endeavor  movement,  and  he  spared  no  effort, 
both    among  volunteers  and   among  the   lead- 


At  Yale  57 

ers  of  the  Y.  P.  S.  C.  E.,  in  bringing  the  two 
organizations  in  closer  touch.  The  past  few 
years  have  most  amply  proved  the  wisdom  and 
value  of  the  work  he  thus  inaugurated,  and  many 
a  person  now  looks  back  to  him  or  to  some 
other  volunteer  delegate,  as  the  one  from  whom 
he  first  caught  the  Christ-view  of  the  world." 


Even  while  in  college,  as  has  been  suggested, 
just  as  more  widely  later  in  the  seminary,  he  was 
active  in  extending  missionary  interest  among  the 
young  people  in  the  churches  of  the  four  counties 
about  New  Haven.  He  was  also  one  of  the  or- 
ganizers of  the  Boys'  Club,  in  New  Haven,  which, 
during  his  freshman  year,  reached  a  membership 
of  one  hundred,  and  has  been  handed  down  since 
to  the  charge  of  each  freshman  class. 

In  February,  1891,  he  went  to  the  first  Student 
Volunteer  Convention  in  Cleveland,  and  was  one 
of  the  assistant  secretaries  of  the  Convention. 
There  were  eleven  delegates  from  Yale  Uni- 
versity, two  of  them  from  the  Divinity  School. 
Of  these  eleven,  five  went  to  China,  one  to  India, 
one  to  Korea  and  one  to  Brazil. 

Another  classmate,  the  Rev.  H.  W.  Luce,  and 
a  fellow-missionary  in  China,  though  in  another 
province,  and  in  connection  with  another  church, 
writes  of  Horace's  college  life  : 


"  Immediately  on  entering  college,  he  identified 
himself  with  its  religious  interests.  Not  a  few  men 
made  shipwreck  of  their  college  Christian  life,  or 
at  least  made  it  null  and  void  of  power,  during 


58     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

those  four  precious  college  years,  just  because 
they  waited  to  see  how  things  '  went '  rehgiously 
in  college,  not  realizing  that  the  position  one 
takes  the  first  few  weeks  will,  in  the  majority 
of  cases,  determine  the  religious  trend  of  one's 
whole  college  life.  Not  so  Pitkin.  He  was 
governed  always  by  the  inward  principle  and  life, 
and  he  must  at  once  take  his  stand  regardless  of 
any  outward  condition.  Through  all  his  course 
from  first  to  last,  his  fellow-students  knew  where 
he  stood,  and  all  knew  that  for  every  Christian 
service  he  could  be  counted  on. 

In  later  years  he  often  spoke  of  the  vagueness  of 
his  early  ideas  regarding  missions  and  of  their  re- 
quirements. At  first  he  thought  a  man  need  only 
go  for  a  limited  time,  and  this  mainly  as  a  fine 
preparation  for  becoming  a  useful  mission  pastor 
at  home.  Later,  when  he  began  to  realize  the  need 
of  the  heathen  world,  he  saw  it  demanded  all  of  a 
man's  life.  But  it  was  this  very  memory  that 
later  made  him  unwearyingly  strive  to  let  others 
know  what  the  claims  and  demands  of  the 
heathen  lands  were  on  the  lives  of  the  followers 
of  Jesus. 

"  There  was  a  period  at  Yale  when  the  relig- 
ious meetings  about  which  the  religious  life  cen- 
tered (and  possibly  it  was  true  also  of  the 
religious  life  itself),  were  at  a  low  ebb.  But  for 
several  years  previous  to  Pitkin's  entrance  there 
had  been  a  gradual  change  until  at  the  time  of  the 
entrance  of  his  class  it  became  so  honorable  and 
influential  a  thing  to  be  officially  connected  with 
the  religious  organization  of  the  college,  that 
political  methods  for  the  first  time  entered  into 
the  election  of  the  class  religious  representatives, 
though  this  was  brought  about  by  men  who 
were  never  seen  at  the  religious  meetings  after 
the  elections.  Notwithstanding  that  such  a 
change  had  taken  place,  there  was  little  interest 


At  Yale  59 

in  missions,  and  as  little  l^nowledge  of  them.  It 
was  Pitkin's  liope  and  prayer  that  this  too  might 
be  changed.  He  began  by  speaking  to  those 
whom  he  knew  best  about  his  hopes  and  his 
plans.  He  tried  in  every  way  to  get  men  to  go 
to  Northfield;  daily  he  prayed  for  the  men  for 
whom  his  heart  longed,  pleading  that  they  might 
be  led  to  give  their  lives  to  God's  service  in  the 
dark  places  of  the  earth.  Gradually,  some  men 
yielded,  other  volunteers  came  in  from  other  col- 
leges and  schools.  This  encouraged  him.  Vol- 
unteer meetings  were  started.  Missions  were 
studied  by  this  little  group  of  men.  Frequently, 
others  added  themselves  to  the  group,  until,  at 
the  time  of  Pitkin's  graduation,  there  were,  I 
think,  twenty-four  volunteers  in  Yale.  But  the 
work  went  on  and  the  graduating  volunteers  con- 
tinued to  pray  with  those  still  in  college,  that 
even  a  greater  and  broader  interest  in  missions 
might  be  taken  by  the  college  which  they  loved  so 
much.  Gradually,  through  much  prayer,  mission- 
ary meetings  were  started  in  the  various  classes. 
Yale  volunteers  returned  to  address  the  students 
and  to  talk  with  them  personally  about  the  claims 
of  the  missions.  Finally,  the  large  Sunday  even- 
ing university  meeting  was  thrown  open  to  such 
a  meeting.  Missions  came  to  be  supported  with 
some  liberality,  and  it  might  be  said  that  Yale 
could  be  counted  among  the  Missionary  Colleges. 
This  spirit  has  continued,  and  she  has  sent  forth 
from  her  midst  the  '  Yale  Band ' ;  a  group  of  young 
Yale  students  who  were  remarkably  blessed  in 
some  of  our  large  cities  in  arousing  a  strong  and 
intelligent  interest  in  Young  People's  Societies, 
planting  dozens  of  missionary  libraries,  and  sug- 
gesting many  helpful  methods  of  work.  Of 
course  many  have  been  at  work  bringing  about 
this  result,  but  the  initial  impulse  and  the  begin- 
nings of  the  work  may  be  traced  to  the  decision 


6o     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

and  conviction  of  Horace  Pitkin  in  the  first  year 
of  his  college  course. 

''While  in  college,  it  often  happened — perhaps 
as  often  as  once  a  week — that  we  could  see  him 
going  across  the  campus  just  as  evening  came 
on;  and  those  who  were  best  acquainted  with 
him  knew  that  he  was  going  out  to  '  speak  on 
missions.'  He  firmly  believed  (and  his  whole 
life  was  but  an  expression  of  his  belief)  that  men 
must  give  as  well  as  go ;  and  so,  whenever  op- 
portunity offered,  he  was  found  speaking,  before 
churches,  Sabbath-schools  and  Young  People's 
Societies.  It  is  believed  that  in  this  quiet  way 
during  his  college  course,  he  was  able  to  turn 
some  four  or  five  thousand  dollars  into  the  treas- 
uries of  the  Mission  Boards;  a  fine  record  for  any 
college  man;  a  remarkable  one  when  we  con- 
sider that  the  development  of  student  work  for 
missions  had  hardly  begun." 

In  a  somewhat  similar  vein,  another  classmate, 
now  at  work  in  India,  Mr.  G.  Sherwood  Eddy 
writes,  speaking  also  of  Pitkin's  passion  for 
music: 

"  Even  in  freshman  year,  I  remember  him  as  one 
of  the  most  earnest  men  in  the  class.  In  his  secret 
life,  in  his  daily  walk  with  God,  in  devotional  Bible 
study,  he  was  perhaps  the  most  consecrated  man 
in  the  class.  It  was  he,  among  the  two  thousand 
then  in  the  university,  who  was  first  ready  to  hear 
God's  call  to  the  foreign  field.  The  rest  of  us,  I 
think,  were  not  within  calling  distance.  Each 
had  his  own  ambitions  and  plans.  He  was  the 
first  to  be  ambitious  for  God  and  for  His  King- 
dom. And,  having  yielded  his  own  life,  he  be- 
came a  tireless  worker  where  he  was.  He  did 
not  postpone  his  life,  bijt  lived  then,     Before 


At  Yale  61 

ever  setting  foot  in  China,  he  had  raised  up  a 
band  of  a  dozen  of  the  strongest  men  in  Yale 
(many  of  them  followed  him  to  China);  he  had 
aroused  missionary  interest  in  Christian  Endeavor 
Societies  throughout  Connecticut;  had  raised 
$5,000  for  the  Board  and  had  planted  the  mis- 
sionary interest  so  deeply  in  the  religious  life  and 
organization  of  Yale  that  it  has  never  died  out, 
but  even  now,  after  ten  years,  is  deepening,  with 
the  promise  of  yet  greater  things.  When  we 
came  to  college  there  was  no  missionary  interest, 
no  volunteers,  no  missionary  meetings  and  no 
money  given  for  missions.  With  Pitkin,  the 
present  missionary  interest  in  Yale  began.  His 
interest  may  be  farther  reaching  than  that  of  any 
man  in  a  decade  or  more  at  Yale,  for  his  works 
have  been  made  manifest  that  they  were  wrought 
in  God.  Directly  or  indirectly,  we  may  trace  to 
the  influence  of  his  life,  or  to  the  movement 
which  he  began,  the  present  and  what  we  be- 
lieve will  be  the  permanent  influence  of  Yale  in 
missions. 

"In  his  sophomore  year  at  college,  his  father 
died.  It  was  a  real  and  deep  sorrow  in  his  life 
and  made  him  feel  much  alone.  He  was  thrown 
more  than  ever  on  God,  and  he  was  drawn  into 
yet  closer  communion  and  more  complete  sur- 
render. During  these  days,  his  deep,  sensitive 
nature  seemed  to  express  itself  and  to  find  relief 
in  his  piano.  Not  in  set  pieces  but  in  the  greater 
freedom  of  improvising  he  poured  out  all  the 
sorrow  and  loneliness  and  longing  of  his  heart." 

Of  his  general  standing  in  college  Mr.  Bronson 
writes: 

*'  He  excelled  in  all,  for  it  was  all  part  of  his  relig^ 
ion.     As  3  student  he  was  good,  missing  i\  B,  K, 


62     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

stand  by  but  a  small  margin.  He  wrote  fre- 
quently for  the  college  periodicals,  and  was  an 
editor  of  The  Yale  Courant.  In  athletics,  as  a 
tennis  player  he  excelled,  and  took  an  active  in- 
terest in  football  and  rowing.  Doubtless  had  he 
been  somewhat  more  mature  physically  in  the 
early  part  of  his  course,  he  would  have  taken  a 
prominent  place  in  both  of  those  sports.  He  was 
physically  strong  and  well  developed,  increas- 
ingly so  even  after  leaving  college.  Like  Paul  he 
kept  himself  in  training.  His  musical  ability  was 
a  great  joy  to  himself  and  to  his  friends.'  His 
room  always  contained  a  piano,  and  many  a  jolly 
song  and  good  time  did  his  friends  have  there. 
During  part  of  his  course  he  was  a  member  of 
the  University  Glee  Club.  In  addition  to  these 
other  manly  traits,  a  happy  buoyant  spirit,  a 
sunny  face  and  joyous  disposition  were  always 
characteristic  of  him.  So  proverbial  was  his  suc- 
cess in  overcoming  difficulties  that  a  phrase  con- 
taining a  very  bad  pun  on  his  name,  but  many 
times  found  to  be  true,  became  current  among 
his  friends  early  in  his  course:  *  If  anybody  kin. 
Pit-kin.'  (He  was  usually  called  Pit  by  his  class- 
mates.)" 


In  his  freshman  year  Pitkin  began  to  contribute 
to  The  Yale  Courant.  His  first  article  appeared 
in  December,  1888,  and  was  entitled,  "An  Episode 
in  High  Life."  Oddly  enough  it  is  a  story  about 
the  Chinese  Emperor,  and  deals  humorously  with 
his  power  over  the  lives  of  his  people.  '*  'Off 
with  his  head,'  roared  the  Emperor."  The  case 
laid  before  the  Emperor  by  his  "Chancellor" 
shows  that  Pitkin  had  already  become  familiar 
with  some  idiosyncrasies  of  the  Chinese  mind: 


At  Yale  63 

**Two  merchants,  having  attended  a  fair  in 
Hangchow,  while  returning  home,  found  them- 
selves in  a  region  known  to  be  infested  by  cut- 
throats. They  finally  arrived  at  an  inn,  but  were 
refused  admission,  as  men  known  to  be  robbers 
had  called  for  them  a  little  while  before;  and 
the  proprietor  said  he  was  unable  to  drive  them 
off  if  they  should  scent  the  travellers. 

**  However,  he  advised  them  to  hasten  to  the 
mandarin,  who  lived  a  small  distance  be- 
yond. 

"  They  were  kindly  received  by  this  mandarin, 
by  name  Loh.  Preparation  for  resisting  an  at- 
tack was  made  by  fixing  the  gate,  so  that  only 
one  person  from  outside  could  come  in  at  a  time. 

"At  midnight  a  band  of  men  appeared  and 
demanded  admission.  It  was  given.  But  as  a 
rush  was  made  to  get  in,  one  man  succeeding  at 
a  time  was  killed;  and  when  three  or  four  lay 
dead  then  was  the  gate  shut. 

**The  robbers  waited  some  time;  but  finally 
knocked  and  asked  where  their  comrades  were. 
For  answer  the  head  of  one  was  thrown  over 
the  wall. 

"The  robbers  seizing  this,  hastened  to  the 
Justice  in  Hangchow,  and  accused  Loh  of  attack- 
ing them.  But  then  Loh  himself  appeared  and 
told  the  true  state  of  affairs. 

"  However,  the  Justice  ordered  both  parties  to 
be  confined  until  he  could  learn  the  exact  state  of 
the  case.  This  the  robbers  objected  to,  and 
asked  permission  to  return  to  get  the  bodies  of 
their  comrades,  or  else  they  might  be  stolen. 

"This  seemed  only  just  to  the  Justice,  and 
although  Loh  begged  him  not  to  grant  it,  saying 
all  his  household  would  be  murdered,  he  gave 
them  their  liberty. 

"The  next  day  when  Loh  returned  home, 
since  the  Justice  had  found  he  had  been  misled, 


64     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

he  found  his  whole  family  ruthlessly  murdered, 
— not  a  soul  escaping. 

"  *  And  now,'  ended  Wee,  'what  shall  be  done 
to  this  recreant  Justice?' 

''The  Emperor  thought  and  thought,  knitted 
his  brows  and  unravelled  them  again,  and  finally 
said:  'After  due  consideration,  1  think — 1  think 
— he — ought — to — be— beheaded! '  ending  with 
such  a  jerk  and  ferocious  expression,  that  Wee 
could  hardly  persuade  himself  to  remain  long 
enough  to  reply,  '  Thus  shall  it  be.' 

"  Then  the  Emperor  smiled,  and  looking  at  his 
pipe  smiled  still  more,  till  his  spirits  rose  to  the 
magnitude  of  his  smile,  and  he  began  to  hum, — 
an  unprecedented  catastrophe, — 'beheaded! — be- 
headed !  and  so '     But  here  he  stopped,  for  he 

realized  that  the  Emperor  of  China  should  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  'Mikado.' 

"Then,  laboring  under  the  delusion  that  he 
had  made  a  '  merry  jest,'  he  renewed  the  smiling 
process,  until  falling  back  among  the  pillows,  he 
soon  was  lost  in  slumbers!  " 

During  his  junior  and  senior  years  Pitkin  was 
on  the  editorial  board  of  The  Courant,  and  he 
contributed  in  all  eleven  stories,  a  descriptive 
sketch  of  "  A  Sunset  near  the  Matterhorn,"  and  a 
bit  of  verse: 

"  Why  call  that  banjo  '  piccolo ' 
That  to  the  upper  scale  doth  go, 
Methinks  'tis  wrong  to  call  it  so ; " 
Says  she ! 
*•  When  wrong  was  right,  and  all  awry 
They  named  it, — though  it  were  a  lie,— 
A  « piccolo  for  ♦  pick-a-high ; '  " 
Says  he. 

Two  of  the  stories  relate  to  old  negroes  who 


At  Yale  65 

had  been  in  slavery.  They  are  evidently  rem- 
iniscent of  that  contact  with  the  South  and  its 
life  which  he  gained  through  his  father's  southern 
experiences,  doubtless  related  to  Horace  as  a 
boy.  There  is  a  touch  of  pathetic  interest  in 
both  of  these  stories.  A  chief  of  police  from 
Ceylon,  the  Glencoe  massacre  and  bull-fights  in 
Spain  figure  in  two  other  stories.  But,  char- 
acteristically, most  of  his  stories  deal  with  some 
mechanical  contrivance.  One  tells  of  a  pro- 
fessor's photographing  a  class  without  its  knowl- 
edge, while  he  had  his  back  turned,  catching  in 
the  picture  a  member  of  the  class  purloining  a 
copy  of  the  coming  examination  paper,  which 
he  had  seen  in  the  professor's  desk.  Another 
deals  with  a  proposition  to  recite  by  a  phono- 
graph concealed  on  the  person.  "A  Legend  of 
Zululand  "  tells  a  tale  of  the  origin  of  the  boome- 
rang. Three  are  western  stories,  two  of  them 
railroad  tales.  One  brings  in  an  ingenious  con- 
trivance for  stealing  money  out  of  a  ticket  office 
money  drawer.  And  the  other  kills  off  the 
villains  by  means  of  a  pile  driver,  to  the  handle 
of  which  the  hero  had  been  tied  with  the  purpose 
of  having  him  run  over  by  a  railroad  train  cross- 
ing a  new  bridge  he  had  just  built.  **  E  Pluribus 
Unum"  tells  of  a  wife  who  secured  the  acquittal 
of  a  husband  accused  of  a  murder  which  he  had 
not  committed,  the  dead  man  having  been  killed 
by  a  live  wire  which  had  struck  him  on  the  fore- 
head, but  in  a  way  which  no  one  could  account 
for  or  would  believe  possible  until  the  ingenious 


66     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

wife  discovered  the  secret.  They  are  pleasant, 
wholesome  stories,  revealing  clearly  the  me- 
chanical genius,  healthy  uprightness  of  mind, 
bright  wit,  and  kindly,  cheerful  hopefulness  of 
their  writer.  It  is  not  hard  to  feel  in  them  his 
cleanness  of  principle,  and  his  robust  independ- 
ence and  integrity  of  life. 

Pitkin  did  not  regard  himself  as  one  of  the 
popular  men.  How  he  felt  is  indicated  in  a 
letter  from  China  in  1898,  to  Mr.  Bronson,  who 
had  written  to  him  for  a  letter  for  the  Sexennial 
Reunion  of  the  class: 

**As  for  the  reunion  letter,  I  have  written 
none,  because  I  have  not  been  able  to  be  assured 
that  missionary  letters  have  a  place  in  such  a 
gathering.  It  would  be  a  different  thing  had  I 
been  popular  in  the  class;  then  would  a  letter  be 
of  interest  to  all.  And  whatever  of  mission 
interest  there  might  be  in  the  letter  would  be  re- 
ceived in  a  good  spirit  for  the  sake  of  the  man. 
Trummy  could  write  such  a  letter.  For  me  to 
write  one,  would  seem  to  be  dragging  mission 
things  in  by  the  hair  of  the  head.  So  I  have  not 
written." 

In  this  judgment,  he  did  not  do  himself  justice. 
"It  was  exceedingly  impressive  to  me  to  see  at 
our  decennial  dinner,"  writes  one  of  his  friends 
of  the  class  dinner  in  1902,  "the  evident  love 
and  reverence  the  men  bore  towards  Pitkin. 
One  of  the  speakers  said  that  we  ought  never  to 
meet  as  a  class  without  paying  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin." 


At  Yale  67 

Probably  the  tragedy  of  his  death  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  this  mellow  and  reverent 
tenderness  of  feeling.  During  his  college  course, 
he  was  altogether  too  positive  and  pronounced  a 
character  to  purchase  popularity  by  the  least 
abatement  of  principle  or  conviction.  What  his 
position  was  and  how  his  character  affected  his 
relation  to  men  and  also  much  about  his  habits 
and  ways  is  set  forth  in  the  recollections  of  Mr. 
Luce: 

"From  the  very  first  entrance  into  college,  he 
took  a  firm  moral  and  Christian  stand.  He  never 
drifted  nor  followed  the  crowd  as  many  did,  be- 
cause it  was  the  easiest  or  most  popular  thing  to 
do.  Conscience  was  law  to  him;  he  was  ruled 
by  principles  within  rather  than  by  outside 
forces.  This  was  one  of  the  reasons,  perhaps 
the  main  reason,  why  he  was  not  widely 
popular.  He  and  the  world  were  separate  and 
compromise  of  any  form  was  a  thing  not  to  be 
thought  of.  This  spirit  revealed  itself  in  many 
ways.  For  instance,  it  was  the  custom  of  an 
outgoing  Board  of  Editors  of  the  college  papers 
to  give  a  banquet  to  the  incoming  Board  of 
Editors.  At  these  and  various  other  banquets, 
wine  was  used.  Not  a  few  earnest  men  felt 
that  it  was  sufficient  to  go,  and  manifest  their 
position  by  having  their  glasses  turned  down  and 
thus  unfilled;  but  Pitkin  could  not  look  on  it  in 
this  light  and  so  stayed  away  altogether.  It  cost 
him  much  to  do  this  as  he  was  able  to  enter  into 
the  other  fun,  the  speeches  and  the  songs,  with 
peculiar  zest.  But  with  him,  the  cost  of  a  thing 
was  never  considered  in  determining  what  was 
right  and  wrong.  But  even  if  men  did  not 
always  agree  with  him,  they  always  respected 


68     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

and  honored  him  for  the  earnestness  of  his  con- 
victions and  the  courage  he  had  to  stand  by 
them.  He  was  popular  with  the  few  who  knew 
him  best,  who  saw  his  eagerness  to  help  men, 
his  desire  to  minister  and  not  to  be  ministered 
unto;  and  who  could  see  that  the  brusqueness 
which  was  sometimes  manifest,  was  only  the 
striving  to  keep  under  control  his  extreme 
sensitiveness.  In  addition  there  was  something 
of  loneliness  in  his  nature;  that  loneliness  which 
causes  every  man,  even  the  most  frank  and  open 
natures,  to  lead  a  more  or  less  solitary  life — but 
it  was  much  emphasized  in  Pitkin.  We  felt  it 
most  when  at  evening  time  we  gathered  for  a  few 
moments  in  his  room  before  work  began  and  he 
would  sit  down  to  play  at  the  piano,  not  from 
notes,  but  as  his  spirit  led  him.  Often  at  such  a 
time,  Pitkin  seemed  to  be  far  away,  alone  in  an- 
other world,  feeling  things  and  thinking  things 
which  he  would  have  been  unable  to  share  with 
another.  We  always  felt  that  it  had  grown  out 
of  his  sorrows  connected  with  the  death  of  his 
parents  and  sister,  though  he  never  said  so  and 
no  one  would  have  thought  of  asking  him,  or  in 
any  way  trying  to  penetrate  this  reserve  place  in 
his  nature.  If  he  failed  in  being  popular,  it  was 
because  of  these  things — the  sternness  of  his  con- 
victions, the  hypersensitiveness  which  was  al- 
ways his  greatest  cross,  and  the  reserve  in  his 
nature  which  was  not  shared  by  even  his  nearest 
friends.  I  doubt  if  any  one  but  Jesus  ever  pene- 
trated this  solitary  place." 

Mr.  Trumbull,  who  has  been  already  quoted, 
writes: 

**I  shall  never  forget  one  night  at  Northfield 
when  we  were  together,  and  he  pleaded  with  me 
to  enter  the  foreign  missionary  field  to  which  he 


At  Yale  69 

had  then  pledged  himself.  The  way  was  not  at 
all  clear  for  me  then  to  pledge  myself  to  the 
Student  Volunteer  Movement,  and  it  was  soon 
after  that  the  indications  began  to  point  towards 
my  coming  into  this  work  in  The  Sunday-School 
Times,  in  which  I  have  been  now  for  ten 
years. 

"But  it  was  not  easy  for  Pitkin  to  brook  the 
suggestion  that  any  man  as  free  as  I  was  then 
from  a  definite  call  elsewhere,  should  not  conse- 
crate himself  to  the  foreign  missionary  service. 
I  did  not  like  then  the  intensity  with  which  he 
brushed  aside  any  reasons  that  I  gave  for  not 
pledging  myself  to  that  service.  But  I  realize 
now,  as  I  look  back  on  his  life  and  character  and 
work  and  death,  that  it  was  that  very  willingness 
to  see  but  one  side  of  the  cause  for  which  he  was 
willing  to  live  and  to  die,  that  must  have  been  his 
source  of  power.  With  what  fervent  earnestness 
must  that  young  soldier  of  Christ  have  pleaded 
the  Gospel  to  those  who  needed  it  in  China! 
The  foreign  field  needs  men  as  intense  as  Pitkin, 
and  I  thank  God  now  that  I  knew  him,  and  had 
the  privilege  of  working  with  him." 

Another  classmate  writes: 

"In  fact  one  of  the  chief  features  of  my  re- 
membrance of  our  class  prayer-meetings  is  of 
Horace  on  the  front  row,  often  sitting  by  himself, 
then  standing  to  deliver  his  testimony  in  his  own 
earnest  way.  Such  an  one  among  young  men 
opens  himself  to  criticism.  Perhaps  it  was  be- 
cause of  the  very  earnestness  and  strong  decision 
of  his  purpose.  Doubtless,  too,  he  felt  that  in  a 
world  of  open  sin,  compromise  with  evil,  half- 
hearted Christian  service,  there  was  need  of  being 
out  and  out  in  one's  influence  and  profession." 


70     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Mr.  Eddy  writes: 

"  He  was  not  popular  with  the  men  outside  of 
the  religious  circle  at  Yale,  for  there  was  no  man 
in  the  college  who  took  such  a  decided  stand 
against  the  worldliness  which  then  pervaded  col- 
lege life,  as  did  Pitkin.  On  the  question  of  danc- 
ing, cards,  the  theatre  and  similar  amusements, 
he  took  a  stronger  stand  than  any  man  in  college. 
In  the  matter  of  separation  from  the  world,  in 
which  American  Christian  college  men  are  so  far 
behind  the  Christian  men  in  the  British  Colleges, 
he  received  his  teaching  directly  from  God,  and, 
independent  of  the  opinions  of  men,  he  stood,  if 
need  be,  quite  alone." 

Still  another  classmate,  the  Rev.  O.  H.  Bron- 
son,  writes: 

"  Perhaps  he  cared  too  little  for  a  certain  kind 
of  popularity.  I  know  he  was  liked.  As  the 
secretary  of  our  class  told  me  to-day,  '  Everybody 
liked  him.'  And  everybody  who  knew  him 
loved  him.  Many  of  the  strongest  and  finest 
men  in  the  class  were  among  that  number;  and 
their  number  grew.     They  were  his  true  friends. " 

Probably  there  is  nothing  contradictory  in  the 
varying  views  of  Pitkin's  character  and  his  posi- 
tion in  the  class.  To  men  of  serious  purpose  and 
high  mindedness,  his  life  appeared  attractive  and 
strong.  While  doubtless  with  those  of  diverse 
tastes  and  standards  of  life,  he  was  not  what 
would  be  called  popular,  though  he  commanded 
their  respect  and  commands  it  the  more  now  as 
they  look  back  upon  his  life  and  see  that  he  was 


At  Yale  71 

completing  the  work  and  testimony  of  all  the 
years  in  the  brief  time  given  to  him  here. 

Other  men  recall  the  elements  which  won  for 
Pitkin  the  abiding  respect  and  affection  of  many. 
Thus  one  says: 

"I  remember  Pitkin  well,  having  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  same  eating-club  for  a  large  part  of  the 
college  course.     I  remember  him  as  singularly 
direct,  cheerful,  manly,  courageous  and  positive. 
He  took  for  his  ambition  the  ambition  of  St.  Paul, 
to  be  pleasing  to  his  Heavenly  Father.     Horace 
was  blessed  alike  in  his  perfectly  clear  and  deh- 
nite  conceptions  of  duty,  and  in  the  unflmchmg 
courage  with  which  he  lived  up  to  them.     Exact- 
ing as  his  ideas  of  duty  were,  I  never  discovered 
that  they  engendered  the  least  trace  of  sombre- 
ness   or  gloom.     He   scarcely   felt  the    'weary 
weight  of  this  unintelligible  world';  and  1  think 
it  was  because  of  the  childlike  simplicity  that 
made  him  perfectly  contented  and  happy  in  the 
twofold   blessing  invoked   by  Chrysostom:   '  In 
this  world,  knowledge  of  Thy  truth,  and  in  the 
world  to  come,  life  everlasting.' 

•'Of  Pitkin,  if  of  anybody  else  in  the  class,  it 
'may  be  said  that  he  was  of  the  stuff  of  which 
heroes  are  made.  1  do  not  believe  that  anybody 
ever  questioned  the  sincerity  and  purity  of  his 
life.  Above  all  petty  antipathies  or  differences  of 
opinions,  if  we  had  any,  1  believe  the  whole  class 
feels  a  deep  reverence  for  one  who  lived  and  died 
as  he  did." 

Another  writes: 

"  Horace  Pitkin,  or  *  Tracy,'  roomed  just  across 
the  hall  from  me  in  Lawrence,  so  that  I  often 
heard  his  voice  in  the  same  entry,  and  listened  to 


72     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

his  playing  the  piano  in  his  room,  besides  sharing 
the  same  fare  at  at  least  three  boarding  houses 
during  different  years  of  our  course.  He  was  a 
good  scholar,  a  'good  fellow,'  interested  in  va- 
rious features  of  college  life.  But  he  was  pre- 
eminently a  religious  man,  not  a  recluse,  not  a 
bigot,  not  a  wiseacre,  but  on  the  contrary  a 
strong,  cheery,  heahhy  fellow,  fond  of  fun,  op- 
posed to  affectation.  He  had  his  gibes  like 
others,  poked  his  fun  like  others.  He  was  pure 
of  speech,  pure  of  habit.  Once  reference  was 
made  to  a  classmate  friend  of  his  who  was  a 
Student  Volunteer,  but  who  had  the  habit  of 
smoking.  Horace  expressed  his  regret  at  the 
habit  by  saying:  *  But  it's  the  influence  upon  his 
character.'  Nobody  could  attend  the  religious 
meetings  at  Yale  without  being  impressed  with 
Horace  Pitkin's  presence.  His  place  was  always 
on  the  front  seat  and  he  made  it  his  custom  to  let 
his  voice  be  heard  for  the  cause  to  which  he  de- 
voted his  life,  with  manly  bearing  and  earnest 
words,  addressing  us  as  *  fellows.'  His  was  a 
whole-hearted  nature.  His  sincerity  was  shown 
once,  when,  speaking  of  the  cause  to  which  he 
gave  his  life,  he  said  to  me,  *I  would  die  for  it.' 
And  how  little  1  could  comprehend  then  a  Boxer 
uprising,  and  his  name  among  those  who  gained 
a  martyr's  crown.  And  now  as  I  look  back  I 
regard  Horace  Pitkin  as  one  of  the  most  devot- 
edly consecrated  and  heroic  Christians  I  have 
known." 

Another  of  his  classmates,  the  secretary  of  the 
class,  declares: 

"The  one  thing  that  remains  in  my  memory 
most  distinctly  about  him  is  his  unfailing  geniality 
and  love  of  good  fellowship.     He  was  essentially 


At  Yale  73 

a  sunny  tempered  man  and  very  fond  of  sociabil- 
ity, and  I  am  sure  everybody  in  the  class  liked 
him." 

Mr.  Luce  writes: 

**  There  was  a  large  social  side  to  his  nature, 
which  was  always  manifest  to  those  nearest  to 
him,  in  whose  presence  he  felt  no  restraint.  How 
he  enjoyed  a  spread  in  his  room,  with  what  mer- 
riment he  would  go  to  the  piano  and  dash  off  a 
rollicking  humorous  song,  of  which  he  had  a 
large  number  at  instant  command!  Innocent 
larks  of  every  kind  and  practical  jokes  were  en- 
tered into  with  keen  boyish  interest.  If  there 
was  sorrow  in  his  heart,  it  was  not  so  great  as  to 
overshadow  the  joy  in  his  heart,  nor  his  love  of 
fun." 

And  one  of  the  men  in  his  class,  who  as  a 
student  at  Andover  had  met  him  first  in  the  old 
"Mansion  House,"  writes  to  confirm  this  view 
of  Pitkin  and  of  other  men's  opinion  of  him: 

"  Please  remember  that  Pitkin  was  not  of  a  sol- 
emn aspect.  No  more  cheery  and  hearty  greet- 
ings did  I  ever  receive  from  my  fellows  at  Yale 
than  when  Pitkin  met  me  on  the  walks  with  a 
bright  smile  and  a  '  Hello,  Tuck,  how  are  you  ?' 
If  you  were  in  Northfield  in  '89  when  we  dwelt 
at  Hillside  cottage,  the  abode  for  that  year  of  the 
Yale  delegation,  you  remember  Pitkin  in  the  gen- 
eral meetings,  also  at  the  mission  rallies  on  Round 
Top,  that  is  now  not  only  hallowed  as  the  resting- 
place  of  the  mortal  remains  of  our  beloved  Mr. 
Moody,  but  also  as  the  spot  from  which  Pitkin 
learned  to  look  not  only  across  the  Connecticut 
flowing  a  few  rods  away  to  the  beautiful  hills 


74     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

beyond,  but  far,  far  away  to  the  lands  to  which 
he  gave  himself,  and  from  which  he  looked 
across  the  great  river  to  the  eternal  hills  of  God 
whose  welcome  he  has  received. 

"At  Northfield  Pitkin  was  the  life  of  the  meet- 
ings, and  he  could  be  the  life  of  the  students'  frol- 
ics— when  at  ten  or  eleven  o'clock  ghost-like  fig- 
ures and  pillows  went  flying  through  the  corridor 
of  our  sleeping  abode. 

"1  thank  God  for  the  precious  memories  of 
Northfield,  a  great  chapter  in  my  life.  One  spe- 
cial act  of  personal  kindness  I  must  recall.  Like 
many  a  lad  at  Yale,  I  had  to  work  my  way.  One 
day  my  attention  was  called  to  an  advertisement 
in  the  Outlook — Christian  Union  then — Pitkin 
had  been  quietly  asking  the  world  to  supply  me 
with  tutoring  for  the  summer  and  was  paying 
the  bill.     Life  is  richer  for  having  known  him." 

The  summers  of  his  college  course  were 
spent  as  the  summers  of  earlier  years  had  been, 
at  New  Hartford.  They  were  wholesome,  hearty 
vacations  in  surroundings  full  of  the  best  influ- 
ences; the  old  atmosphere  of  the  famous  county 
and  some  of  the  strength  of  its  "age  of  home- 
spun "  as  Bushnell  expressed  it,  bathing  and  in- 
terpenetrating him.  "  lam  working  very  leisurely 
in  the  study  line,"  he  writes  in  one  vacation,  "but 
hard  at  exercise."  In  the  vacation  of  the  junior 
year  he  writes  in  one  note: 

"Thanks  for  all  the  information,  and  now  I 
want  all  the  names  and  addresses  of  the  fellows 
who  signed  at  Northfield.  Find  out  as  soon  as 
possible  from  catalogue,  etc.,  and  let  me  know 
so  as  to  start  a    'round   robin.'     I   am  off  for 


At  Yale  75 

Canada  on    a  'Fresh  Air'  thing  and  expect  a 

circus." 

The  ''Fresh  Air  thing"  was  an  expedition  to 
Canada  with  a  company  of  poor  children  from 
New  York  City,  sent  for  an  outing  to  the  coun- 
try.    He  was  anxious  to  learn  who  of  the  Yale 
delegation  had  volunteered  at  Northfield,  that  is, 
had  signed  the  declaration  of  the  Student  Volun- 
teer Movement,  expressing  the  purpose  to  be- 
come a  foreign  missionary,  so  that  he  might  fol- 
low the  men  up.     What  Northfield  had  been  to 
him,  it  was  to  others  also— the  place  where  life 
came  to  itself  and  set  hard  in  the  will  to  serve. 
The  spot  where  this   purpose  crystallized  and 
found  expression  became  to  him,  as  it  is  to  many 
students,  the  dearest  spot  in  the  world.     To  the 
end,  the  memory  of  it  never  faded  as  he  saw  it 
that  evening  when  he  finally  made  his  decision 
and  gave  open  expression  to  it:  the  clump  of  pine 
trees  on  the  side  of  the  hill  and  the  little  birches 
on  the  top;  the  sun  setting  red  and  glorious  on 
the  Berkshires;  the  Connecticut  stretching  like  a 
sinuous,  silver  cord  up  the  valley;  the  lengthening 
shadows  across  the  new  mown  fields;  the  scent 
of  the  clover  and  the  green  grass  and  the  four 
hundred  men  lying  on  the  hillside  and  thinking 
of  the  meaning  and  use  of  life,  and  of  the  light 
falling  softly  on  the  purpose  of  it,  from  the  ex- 
ample of  Him  who  nineteen  centuries  ago  lay  on 
the  hills  of  Galilee;  who  was  among  men  as  one 
who  serves,  and  who  came  not  to  do  His  own 
will  but  the  will  of  His  Father  who  had  sent 


76     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

him.  Horace  Pitkin  had  grown  from  his  infancy 
to  love  principle  and  abide  by  right  and  the 
Northfield  influence  of  reality  and  openness  and 
whole-heartedness  and  unselfishness  fed  all  the 
original  purpose  of  his  life,  and  nourished  him 
into  maturity  of  religious  character,  and  the  will 
to  do  at  once  a  man's  positive  work  in  the 
world. 

As  he  left  college,  the  qualities  which  he  pos- 
sessed were  those  of  a  definite  and  positive  per- 
sonality. "His  energy  was  exhaustless,"  writes 
one,  ''and  his  earnestness  in  his  chosen  line  of 
work,  remarkable." 

Another  speaks  of  his  thoughtfulness  and  con- 
siderate kindliness.  **I  recall,"  says  Mr.  W.  L. 
Thacher,  "the  cheerful  and  thoroughly  devoted 
way  that  he  lived.  His  friendly  unreserved  greet- 
ings made  him  noticeable.  His  common  sense 
and  persistence  and  foresight  impressed  me.  Few 
men  have  made  as  much  impression  upon  my  life 
as  he  did." 

And  above  all  he  had  learned  the  meaning  and 
the  power  of  prayer. 


Ill 

AT  UNION  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

Soul  rule  thyself.     On  passion,  deed,  desire  lay  thou  the  laws 

of  thy  deliberate  will 
Stand  at  thy  chosen  post,  faith's  sentinel.     Learn  to  endure. 
Thine  the  reward  of  those  who  make  living  light  their  lord. 
Clothed  in  celestial  light,  these  walk  secure, 

Masters,  not  slaves.  — Sy?nonds. 

In  one  of  his  letters  of  the  summer  of  1892, 
Pitkin  reminds  a  friend  of  "our  mottoes,  old 
man,"  referring  to  two  Bible  verses  he  had  chosen 
for  the  members  of  the  Yale  Volunteer  Band: 

1  Thess.    5:25,    "Brethren,  pray  for  us,"  and 

2  Cor.  5:  14,  "  For  the  love  of  Christ  constraineth 
us,  because  we  thus  judge,  that  one  died  for  all, 
therefore  all  died."  In  the  spirit  of  these  "  mot- 
toes" he  entered  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
New  York  City,  in  the  fall  of  the  year. 

He  laid  himself  out  at  once  to  deepen  the  mis- 
sionary spirit  in  the  seminary,  with  such  success 
that  Eddy  and  Luce,  classmates  of  his  at  Yale  and 
in  the  Seminary,  both  became  "Volunteers"  and 
what  he  called  a  "mission  revival"  in  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Bronson,  developed.  Mr.  Bronson  was  at 
the  time  teaching  in  the  Thacher  School  in  Cali- 
fornia. This  explains  some  of  the  allusions  in 
the  letter: 

77 


7 8     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

"  I  suppose  that  you  have  heard  from  Norman  or 
some  one  of  our  doings  in  these  diggings,  and  so 
I  shall  tell  you  but  little. 

"  First  of  all,  much  obliged  for  the  letter  which 
told  me  of  the  chance  of  Norman's  being  over- 
come by  the  last  one  of  yours,  as  it  enabled  me  to 
cheer  him  up  a  little  with  *  cheer  up,  old  man,  the 
worst  is  yet  to  come,'  and  that  brightened  him  up 
considerably.  1  suppose  you  are  having  a  grand 
loaf,  superintending  exams,  and  such  chores,  with 
a  day  off  to  ride  your  pony — or  mule,  rather 
.  .  .  pardon  me!  But  I  tell  you  there  is  no 
rest  for  the  weary  here  as  yet  awhile,  for  I  am 
way  behind  in  my  work  at  the  present  time  and 
have  no  time  to  be  foolmg  in  writing  to  you,  but 
I  am  putting  it  down  as  mission  work.  How- 
ever, the  work  this  term  is  not  a  circumstance  to 
the  work  last  term,  for  the  Hebrew  is  getting  a 
good  deal  easier  and  the  other  work  is  mostly  in 
getting  hold  of  lectures  and  '  sich.'  But  then  you 
must  count  in  also  the  mission  speeches  to  be 
made,  yet,  since  the  increase  of  available  force  in 
that  line,  I  have  been  enabled  to  put  the  re- 
sponsibility off  on  Luce  and  Eddy,  and  so  have 
not  made  more  than  fifteen  or  twenty  speeches 
this  year. 

"  But  have  you  heard  of  our  mission  revival  of 
this  term  ?  it  was  truly  a  work  of  God,  and  to 
Him  be  all  the  praise  and  glory!  It  was  simply 
the  fact  of  a  volunteer's  dying  in  our  class  that 
brought  the  fellows  together  and  broke  the  ice. 
Of  course,  his  connection  with  the  movement 
brought  the  same  very  prominently  before  the 
eyes  of  the  men  and  the  question  turned  very 
pertinently  on  a  personal  consecration  of  self  to 
the  work.  The  evening  after  his  death,  we  held 
a  class  prayer-meeting,  which  was  led  by  Eddy, 
who  had  just  signed.  Of  course,  he  led  it  in  the 
direction  of  missions  and  one  and  another  got  up 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary       79 

and  stated  their  personal  reasons  for  and  against. 
This  broke  the  ice  and  every  man  in  the  class  was 
approached  and  talked  to  as  the  Master  led  us, 
and  we  had  daily  prayer-meetings  in  the  room 
and  had  a  list  of  men  to  pray  for  each  day,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  week  we  had  scratched  off' four 
and  they  were  with  us  praying  for  the  rest.  The 
movement  did  not  stop  there,  for  the  upper 
classes  have  felt  the  stir,  and  two  of  the  most 
prominent  men  in  the  class  are  thinking  very 
earnestly  about  the  subject.  Besides  this,  we 
have  had  a  Foreign  Missionary  Day,  which  was 
given  up  to  papers  and  addresses  on  all  sorts  of 
subjects,  and  this  created  more  thought,  but  now 
preeminently,  the  question  is  not  talking  to  men 
but  praying  for  men,  and  so  I  write  this  letter  as 
a  missionary  letter,  to  get  your  prayers  on  the 
other  side  of  the  continent,  and  just  as  at  New 
Haven,  though  separated,  we  can  try  to  pray 
together  at  the  same  time.  We  meet  right  after 
lunch  at  half-past  one  each  day!  (i  Thess.  5:25). 

"  If  you  come  to  the  seminary  next  year,  you 
will  have  at  least  four  volunteers  to  start  in  with, 
and  God  only  knows  what  grand  things  may  be 
accomplished  by  taking  things  in  time  and  not 
waiting  as  we  did. 

"May  the  Master  be  very  near  you  is  my 
prayer.  ...  Be  very  strong,  study  very  ear- 
nestly missions  now  that  you  have  a  chance  and 
be  a  wondrous  man  in  prayer,  for  this  is  the 
kind  of  a  man  the  seminary  wants  and  the  world 
needs,  and  the  Volunteer  Movement  too,  and  the 
Master  will  wonderfully  bless  your  efforts  in  His 
cause.     This  is  from  my  heart!  " 

Mr.  Luce  and  Mr.  Eddy  certify  to  the  leadership 
of  Pitkin  in  this  revival,  and  to  the  intense  char- 
acter of  his  seminary  life.     Mr.  Luce  writes  in 


8o     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

the   third    person    as   follows   of   the  seminary 
course: 

**  The  years  in  the  seminary  were  happy  ones. 
Pitkin,  Eddy  and  Luce  were  next  door  neighbors, 
that  is,  they  had  rooms  in  the  seminary  closely 
adjoining.  When  Luce  was  in  college  preparing 
to  enter  the  law,  he  always  felt  that  Pitkin  was 
praying  that  he  be  led  into  missionary  work. 
The  latter  part  of  senior  year,  Luce  decided  to 
enter  the  ministry,  and  the  following  vacation 
wrote  to  Eddy,  urging  that  he  join  him  in  going 
up  to  the  Union  Seminary  in  the  fall.  Eddy  had 
just  left  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work  and  was  uncertain 
what  his  future  course  would  be.  The  fall  found 
these  three  friends  and  college  classmates  at 
Union.  There  was  Pitkin,  with  his  constant 
purpose  and  his  quiet,  steady  influence  for 
missions,  and  to  the  two  others,  it  seemed  as  if 
the  time  for  a  frank  and  careful  consideration  of 
the  claims  of  missions  on  their  lives  had  come. 
Pitkin  was  applied  to  for  '  missionary  facts  and 
figures  that  one  could  absolutely  rely  on.'  Daily, 
after  dinner,  the  matter  was  discussed  in  all  its 
bearings,  but  it  was  not  in  the  discussions  nor 
through  the  facts  that  light  came,  but  in  the  quiet 
of  the  prayer  time  where  the  convictions  were 
born  that  led  to  action.  In  all  this,  the  influence 
of  Pitkin's  example  had  its  work,  but  we  always 
felt  his  prayers  had  a  greater  part.  We  shall 
never  know  the  part  that  his  prayers  played  in  all 
this,  nor  the  greatness  of  his  joy  when  these  two 
old  friends  were  led  to  purpose,  if  God  permit, 
to  go  to  the  foreign  field.  From  that  day  forth, 
the  prayer  of  the  three  men  was  like  that  of  one 
man.  Once  each  day,  and  often  several  tinies  a 
day,  we  met  to  pray  over  the  things  pertaining  to 
our  'great  purpose'  as  Neesima  would  have 
called  it.     Other  volunteers  united,  and  together, 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary       8l 

two  by  two,  we  would  go  out  to  the  various 
churches  in  New  York  City  and  the  surrounding 
towns  to  speak  on  missions." 

Mr.  Eddy  writes: 

"  In  Union  Seminary,  his  influence  was  always 
stronger  for  missions  than  any  man  in  the  semi- 
nary. He  was  busy  day  and  night  planning  for 
meetings  in  the  seminary,  itself,  or  the  churches 
in  the  city.  During  this  time,  I  was  not  clear  in 
my  own  purpose  to  go  to  the  foreign  field.  I 
was  interested  in  missions.  1  hoped  to  go,  and  I 
thought  probably  I  would  do  so,  some  day.  But 
while  uncertain  myself,  I  saw  I  was  neither  in- 
fluencing other  men  to  go  nor  working  in  the 
churches  to  arouse  interest  and  solicit  funds. 
But  there  was  Pitkin  working  night  and  day,  a 
strong  and  positive  influence  for  missions  among 
the  men  in  the  seminary,  and  pressing  the  claims 
of  the  heathen  before  the  churches  all  over  the 
city.  It  was  this  contrast  between  this  wide 
usefulness  which  was  the  result  of  his  definite 
purpose  as  a  signed  volunteer  (ready  to  go  and 
crowding  every  moment  full  of  work  till  he  did 
go)  and  my  own  inactivity  and  inefficiency  from 
a  missionary  point  of  view,  which  forced  me  to 
seek  the  definite  guidance  of  God.  I  saw  it  was 
not  only  a  future  question  of  some  day  going  to 
the  field,  but  a  present  question  in  that  the  prep- 
aration to  fit  myself  for  the  work  and  the  oppor- 
tunities for  service  called  then  and  there  for  men 
to  *  understand  what  the  will  of  the  Lord  is,'  and 
to  do  it.  God  knew,  then  why  should  not  I  ? 
Pitkin's  life  was  to  me  the  unanswerable  proof 
that  God  could  guide  and  an  example  of  the 
possibilities  of  service  open  to  any  one  who 
knew  God's  will.  1  remember  the  night  I  went 
up  to  Pitkin's  room  and  told  him  I  felt  I  must 


82     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

know  God's  will  for  my  life.  After  prayer 
together  I  went  to  my  own  room,  and  without 
excitement  or  very  much  emotion,  I  waited 
quietly  and  asked  God  to  guide  me  surely  and 
unmistakably.  He  did.  The  simple  conviction 
came  that  it  was  His  will  to  go.  And  from  that 
moment  no  shadow  of  a  doubt  ever  came. 

"As  it  had  been  with  Pitkin,  it  became  a  great 
power  to  string  my  life  to  one  great  purpose  and 
a  motive  to  intense  activity  to  fulfill  it.  That 
week  Luce  and  I  decided  or  rather  let  God  decide 
for  us — and  from  that  time  we  three  planned  and 
praved  for  the  cause  that  became  dearer  than  life 
to  all. 

**  I  remember  as  we  went  down  for  exercise  in 
the  old  gym.  after  grinding  Hebrew  and  Greek 
all  day,  how  the  missionary  purpose  gave  zeal 
even  to  our  exercise  and  as  we  did  our  mile  to- 
gether or  had  a  round  or  two  of  boxing,  the 
thought  often  was  '  We  must  put  on  muscle  for 
China.  We  must  train  for  something  better  than 
the  football  game.  This  will  carry  the  Gospel 
many  a  mile.'  How  little  we  knew  then  that 
for  dear  old  Horace,  the  strongest  of  the  three, 
the  race  would  be  so  short  or  the  martyr  crown 
so  near.  Short  as  was  his  life,  I  never  knew  him 
to  waste  a  moment.  A  sentence  in  Mackay's 
life  impressed  him  much — '  1  must  be  more  ter- 
ribly in  earnest  where  I  am,  knowing  that  I  must 
so  soon  go  elsewhere.'  And  more  fully,  perhaps, 
than  Mackay,  before  he  sailed  his  own  life  ful- 
filled these  words.  He  might  have  sung  even 
had  he  never  reached  China:  'To-morrow  do 
thy  worst,  for  1  have  lived  to-day.' 

''During  his  first  year  in  Union,  his  work  was 
chiefly  amongst  the  churches.  The  second  year, 
Mott  asked  the  three  of  us  to  visit  the  colleges  of 
New  England  and  New  York,  going  out  each 
Saturday  and  Sunday." 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary      83 

While  loyally  at  work  winning  lives,  Pitkin 
was  zealous  in  increasing  the  spirit  of  benefi- 
cence. He,  himself,  had  fine  principles  as  to 
giving  and  he  consistently  preached  them.  He 
had  done  this  in  college.  Mr.  Luce  speaks  of 
some  instances  of  this  during  his  college  course: 

**  Pitkin  was  blessed  with  a  goodly  share  of 
this  world's  goods,  but  he  early  learned  the 
lesson  of  Christian  stewardship  and  the  blessed- 
ness of  giving  rather  than  receiving  was  often 
his.  I  imagine  that  few,  if  any,  knew  how 
much  money  he  gave  away,  as  it  seemed  to  be 
his  delight  not  to  let  his  right  hand  know  what 
his  left  hand  did.  Desiring  that  a  certain  student 
be  drawn  towards  missionary  work,  he  quietly 
arranges  that  the  class  shall  add  an  extra  delegate 
to  the  Northfield  Students'  Conference,  while  he 
will  bear  the  expense.  Another  student  needs 
help  and  an  advertisement  is  inserted  in  the 
papers,  unknown  to  the  student,  seeking  a  posi- 
tion for  summer  vacation  work.  The  little  son 
of  the  woman  with  whom  he  boards  is  in  Buffalo 
and  the  mother  longs  to  see  him,  but  there  is  no 
money  to  make  possible  such  a  visit.  The 
mother  is  proud  and  Pitkin  knows  that  if  one  of 
her  boarders  were  to  give  her  the  money,  it 
would  wound  her.  But  a  goodly  check  is  rhade 
out,  sent  to  a  college  classmate  in  Buffalo,  and 
the  boy  comes  home,  helped  by  an  unknown 
hand  to  enjoy  a  happy  visit  with  his  mother. 
Little  did  they  think  that  the  man  who  sat  daily 
at  their  table,  rejoicing  in  their  joy,  was  the  one 
who  had  made  it  all  possible." 

And  Mr.  David  McConaughy  for  thirteen  years 
a  representative  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 


84     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Association  in  India,  who  had  known  Pitkin 
from  his  boyhood,  testifies  to  another  striking 
incident  of  his  generosity  and  faithfulness: 

"After  entering  Yale  and  coming  under  the 
influence  of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  he 
caught  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  with  two 
of  his  classmates  assumed  my  support  as  a  sub- 
stitute in  India.  I  thus  became  linked  with  him 
in  a  living  partnership.  The  knowledge  that  he 
and  his  colleagues  at  home  were  denying  them- 
selves in  various  ways,  so  as  to  be  able  thus  to 
keep  their  representative  at  the  front,  until  they 
could  go  themselves,  was  a  real  inspiration  to 
me." 

What  Pitkin's  principles  were,  he  set  forth  in 
a  careful  paper,  which  he  read  at  the  Thirteenth 
Annual  Convention  of  the  Inter-Seminary  Mis- 
sionary Alliance  which  met  in  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  in 
1892,  during  his  first  year  in  the  seminary.  It 
seems  worth  while  to  quote  this  paper  in  full, 
both  for  the  light  it  throws  on  Pitkin's  character 
and  opinion  and  also  for  its  own  sake  as  an 
appeal  for  sincere  Christianity  in  the  matter  of 
our  relation  to  our  money: 

"Systematic  Giving." 

As  the  time  is  so  short  I  am  unable  to  treat  of 
this  subject  in  all  its  phases,  and  therefore  must 
needs  confine  myself  to  one  central  line  of  argu- 
ment, leading  to  a  method  of  giving  which  seems 
to  me  to  be  far  superior  to  any  other  in  bringing 
the  giver  closer  in  sympathy  with  and  love  to  the 
Master,  the  first  great  Giver  of  all. 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary      85 

In  this  busy,  bustling,  business  world  of  ours, 
we  are  so  much  engaged  with  the  words,  buy, 
sell  and  pay  that  when  we  come  out  on  the 
broader  plane  of  the  significance  of  the  word 
give,  we  seem  introduced  into  a  new  world  of 
thought,  and  we  must  stop  in  wonder  to  examine 
this  interesting  phenomenon  of  Christian  giving, 
wholly  apart  as  it  is  from  natural  philanthropy 
moved  by  pity  or  natural  generosity. 

Let  us,  therefore,  consider  the  why,  what,  and 
how  of  the  subject;  that  is, 

I.     The  motive  of  the  giver. 
II.     The  gift  of  self. 

III.  The  gift  of  possessions,    (a)  How  much? 

Q?)  How.? 

IV.  Some  practical  thoughts  as  to  the  collec- 

tion of  gifts  given. 

I.     The  motive  of  the  giver. 

We  know  well  the  word  bargain,  and  how 
we  treasure  for  its  intrinsic  worth  that  thing 
gained  by  the  transaction,  while  the  gift,  if  re- 
ceived in  a  true  sense,  is  of  a  value  measured 
only  by  the  love  towards  us  in  the  heart  of  the 
person  giving.  And  not  one  whit  differently, 
but  with  far  more  scrutiny,  yet  with  how  much 
the  greater  love,  does  our  Lord  and  Master, 
Owner,  yet  sharer  with  us,  of  all  things  we  hold 
as  stewards — does  He  who  is  omniscient  and 
omnipotent,  look  down  into  and  pierce  the  hid- 
den recesses  of  our  hearts  to  find  out — what? 
The  quantity  or  mere  price  of  our  gift  ?  No,  no; 
but  the  motive, — the  motive  underlying  it  all; 
for  'Mf  "  the  readiness  (or  willing  mind)  is  there, 
it  is  acceptable  according  as  a  man  hath,  not  ac- 
cording as  he  hath  not. 

A  glorious  thought  it  is,  brothers,  that  we  can 


86     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

go  forth  immediately  to  preach,  first  to  ourselves, 
then  to  others,  that  the  Christian  dispensation 
includes  in  this  phase  of  giving  also  the  weak 
and  the  poor  and  many  ovv^ners  of  the  widow's 
mite;  that  a  man  may  be  poor  in  possessions, 
and  yet  rich  in  God's  sight,  for  would  a  man  de- 
sire greater  wealth  than  God's  love?  Yet  "God 
loveth  a  cheerful  (willing)  giver."  God  grant, 
then,  that  we  may  be  ready  to  preach  every- 
where the  crying  need  of  a  motive, — the  best 
and  the  only, — and  forthwith  to  present  that 
alone  matchless  one,  coming  straight  from  the 
word  of  God. 

"For  the  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us." 
"Give"  has  ever  been  the  word  in  our  Father's 
house,  and  so  "He  gave  His  only  begotten 
Son;"  and  we  come  under  the  rule  of  grace  by 
which  "we  love  Him  because  He  first  loved  us." 
So  that  it  is  because  our  hearts  burn  with  the 
sacrifice  on  Calvary,  not  because  our  ears  tingle 
with  the  command  of  Moses  to  give  a  tenth;  be- 
cause our  desire  is  to  offer  thanksgiving  and  praise, 
not  because  the  law  demands  this  or  that.  For 
these  reasons,  then,  our  motive  must  be  "the 
love  of  Christ,"  loving  not  that  we  may  live,  but 
living  that  we  may  love, — ay,  loving  even  to 
giving  up  of  life. 

With  this  motive  burning  fiercely  in  our 
breasts,  there  is  no  chance  of  our  giving  because 
the  next  neighbor  does,  because  our  father  did 
before  us,  or  because  we  feel  well,  or  feel 
ashamed  not  to;  indeed,  "God  is  not  mocked." 
How  mean  and  despicable  these  ways  really 
seem,  and  yet  for  many  years  many  people, 
Christians  too,  have  so  given  and  probably  will 
so  give,  unless  we  do  our  duty  in  enforcing  the 
highest  of  all  motives,  "Gift  for  gift,  love  for 
love." 

Then  our  first  gift  should  be, 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary      87 

II.  The  gift  of  self.  2  Corinthians  8:  5 — 
"  First  tliey  gave  their  own  selves  to  the  Lord." 

Suppose  men  say  a  man  is  a  Christian.  Is  he 
so  nominally,  or  has  he  really,  in  the  deepest, 
widest,  longest  sense,  given  himself  to  the  Lord, 
— "bought  with  a  price,"  yet  accepted  as  a  gift.^ 
Press  this  question  home  prayerfully  to  ourselves, 
and  then  to  others;  for  surely  in  this  we  have 
the  solution  of  the  giving  problem,  since  if  the 
consecrating  oil  has  touched  ear,  hand,  and  foot, 
it  must  be  but  a  small  step  from  gift  of  self  to 

III.  The  gift  of  possessions. 
(a)    How  much  ? 

"Not  as  little,  but  as  much,  as  we  can,"  must 
be  our  motto.  Remember,  we  are  following  our 
motive, — "Love  for  Christ."  If  God  gave  this 
unspeakable  gift,  how  are  we  to  do  else  than 
give  the  largest  amount  of  our  possessions  we 
possibly  can  to  Him  ?  I  have  seen  it  stated  that 
though  we  may  not  be  bound  rigidly  by  the 
Jews'  tenth,  yet  seeing  they  gave  so  much  under 
the  light  they  had,  we  should  give  much  more  in 
proportion  to  our  greater  light;  that  is,  the  more 
as  Moses  is  replaced  by  the  Lamb  of  God,  the 
One  whom  they  for  so  many  years  longed  to  see, 
but  whom  we  have  seen;  the  more  as  the  veiled 
face  of  the  glory  that  excelleth, — just  so  much 
the  more  should  our  thanksgiving  and  praise 
offering  be. 

On  the  one  side  we  hear  the  subtle  argument, 
"If  a  man  is  a  Christian,  he  does  not  need  to  be 
preached  to  about  giving."  What  a  glorious 
cloak  for  selfishness!  Unfortunately  this  world 
and  ourselves  are  not  ideal,  and  unless  our  walk 
with  God  is  very  close  and  His  Spirit  finds  our 
consciences  very  susceptible  to  His  slightest 
touch,  we  do  need  "first  to  be  taught,"  as  Peter 
puts  it,  and  then  stirred  up  "by  way  of  remem- 
brance." 


88     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

On  the  other  side,  however,  how  often  we 
hear  from  speakers  of  the  crying  need  for  money 
in  home,  foreign,  and  city  mission  work,  forced 
as  they  are  to  put  this  forth,  in  all  the  vivid  im- 
agery at  their  command,  as  an  argument  to  stir 
hard  hearts  of  men  and  soften  stiffened  wills  that 
may  loosen  purse  strings,  too  many  times  hard- 
knotted  about  well  filled  pouches, — whose  gold, 
by  the  way,  does  not  belong  to  its  seeming  own- 
ers, but  to  a  Somebody  else;  that  is  to  say,  put- 
ting forth  as  chief  argument  for  any  money  at 
all  for  anything,  that  which  should  be  put  in  sec- 
ond place  as  a  guide  to  giving,  not  a  motive, — 
confounding  propulsion  with  steering  to  such  an 
extent  that  men  veer  to  all  points  of  the  compass 
with  their  money  until  disgusted  with  this  catch- 
as-catch-can  principle,  they  finally  pocket  it 
again. 

When  will  we  get  back  to  first  principles,  and 
take  unto  ourselves  the  lesson  of  giving  what  we 
have  which  Peter  teaches  in  "Silver  and  gold 
have  I  none;  but  such  as  I  have,"  and  so  stir  up 
our  friends  to  earnest  giving  in  His  name  and  for 
His  sake,  even  though  the  needs  of  the  field  were 
never  to  reach  their  ears  or  affect  their  sympa- 
thies ?  We  then  have  settled  that  just  as  much 
as  we  can  possibly  spare  shall  be  devoted  to 
God's  work,  because  "the  love  of  Christ  con- 
straineth  us." 

{b)     How? 

One  caution:  though  we  are  saved  by  grace, 
our  minds  and  hearts,  so  long  averse,  perchance, 
to  giving  in  a  truly  Christian  way,  must  not  be 
expected  forthwith  to  become  obedient  to  this 
greatest  of  graces,  but  must  be  schooled  until 
"to  give  "  becomes  truly  the  most  joyous  part  of 
our  worship.  To  this  end  must  we  work,  and 
the  scheme  which  1  bring  forward,  if  it  seems  to 
be  the  best  for  accomplishing  this  result,  is  the 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary      89 

scheme  for  us  to  adopt,  however  much  of  a 
struggle  it  may  cost  us  to  break  away  from  any 
plan  long  practiced,  but  fraught  with  the  danger 
of  serving  God  by  the  go-as-you-please  method. 
So  may  we  sit  at  the  feet  of  the  Master,  each  one 
trying  to  gain  a  new  light,  a  new  purpose  as  to 
His  own  way  of  giving,  that  each  one  may  be 
assured  that  if  he  but  follow  the  Master's  desire, 
as  far  as  he  is  concerned,  money  shall  not  be 
lacking  for  His  kingdom  in  time  to  come. 

How  many  times  have  we  scanned  i  Corin- 
thians 1 5 :  58  and  16 :  2,— it  may  be  superciliously, 
as  something  all  well  enough  for  the  brethren  of 
Corinth  to  observe,  something  needful  to  meet 
the  exigencies  of  that  time;  but  as  for  us  at  the 
present  day,  with  our  entire  difference  of  busi- 
ness methods,  though  we  may  be  ''steadfast, 
unmovable,"  even  ''abounding  in  the  work  of 
the  Lord,"—'*  What  appeal,"'  say  we,  "  is  this  for 
us,  *  Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week  let  every 
one  of  you  lay  by  him  in  store,  as  God  hath 
prospered  him  '  ?  " 

One  man  may  take  up  the  Bible  and  prove  by 
proof  texts  that  thus  and  thus  is  the  correct 
method  of  giving;  while  another  points  out  that 
with  those  two  golden  strands  which  run  from 
Genesis  to  Revelation,  representing  Christ  and 
missions  respectively,  there  runs  a  third  thread, 
outcropping  here  and  there  more  or  less  distinctly, 
which  brings  to  our  eyes  God's  method  for  our 
"giving";  and  though  a  distinct  picture  of  the 
whole  as  a  completed  scheme  is  impossible,  yet 
proof  texts  in  this  or  that  place  may  be  cited  as 
partial  examples,  although  these  texts  in  large 
measure  must  not  be  taken  as  direct  law  for  all 
time.  Such  a  passage  is  this  one  of  Paul's.  This 
command  was  not,  like  some  special  instructions 
as  regarded  customs  given  to  particular  churches 
in  such  tremendously  trying  and  critical  moments 


go     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

as  we  can  hardly  understand,  but  it  was  the 
method  of  giving  recommended  to  a  body  of 
Christians  (the  same  method  as  that  sent  to  Ga- 
latia)  who,  as  far  as  this  phase  of  their  Christian 
life  went,  were  in  exactly  the  same  position  as 
our  churches  are  now, — appealed  to  in  behalf  of 
the  poor  brethren  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  wliom 
now  our  mission  boards  can  but  meagrely  help, 
for  the  treasuries  are  well-nigh  empty, — not  much 
meat  in  the  Lord's  house  for  Him  to  be  proved 
by.  So  that  it  were  indeed  necessary,  seeing 
circumstances  fit  over  circumstances  so  neatly, 
that  we  should  take  this  instruction  as  a  law  to 
ourselves  and  the  Church  we  represent. 

Men  do  this,  but  only  partially,  for  they  butcher 
the  text,  making  it  read,  "  Upon  the  first  day  of 
the  week  let  every  one  of  you  lay  by  him  in 
store,"  forgetting  all  about  the  "as  God  hath 
prospered  him,"  which  by  the  way  is  the  more 
important,  as  it  is  the  re-echo  of  God's  word, 
spoken  by  His  holy  men,  ringing  down  the  ages, 
and  tersely  summed  up  in  "Freely  ye  have  re- 
ceived, freely  give." 

As  an  aside,  do  we  notice  Paul  adds:  "That 
no  collections  be  made  when  I  come."  Could 
not  this  be  because  he  wants  their  whole  atten- 
tion given  to  learning  something  new  from  him, 
and  themselves  devoted  to  imparting  it  to  others, 
instead  of  occupying  their  minds  with  how  much 
they  should  begrudge  him,  even  going  to  the 
length  of  compelling  him  to  stop  teaching  on 
more  important  subjects  to  describe,  and  thus 
arouse  their  sympathies  for,  the  suffering  of  the 
brethren  in  Jerusalem  ?  And  with  what  far 
keener  zest  and  earnestness  would  men  to-day  go 
to  listen  to  a  story  of  mission  work  if  they  knew 
no  collection  was  to  be  asked, — for  this  would  be 
useless  if  each  were  laying  by  himself  in  store  as 
God  has  prospered  him, — and  thus  they  would 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary       91 

rejoice  in  God's  wonderful  manifestations  and 
even  decide  to  lay  by  a  thank  offering  for  very 
joy  at  their  participation  in  this  work;  but  for  the 
speaker — what  heart-deep  pleasure  to  speak  to  an 
audience  of  that  caliber! 

Shall  we  then  make  these  verses  a  law  unto 
ourselves  ? 

Men  practice  three  ways  of  giving: 

1.  Let  us  call  it  the  '•  hand-in-pocket "  way; 
that  is,  giving  when  and  as  we  feel  like  it. 

2.  Systematic  giving,  literally, — if  a  cent  in 
youth,  a  cent  in  manhood,  a  cent  in  old  age, 
regularly,  conscientiously,  each  week. 

3.  Systematic  giving,  broad  sense;  that  is, 
Christian  giving. 

(c7)  Systematically,  "  Upon  the  first  day  .  .  . 
lay  by." 

(b)  Proportionately,  "As  God  hath  prospered 
him." 

(c)  Administering  this  as  a  trust  fund. 

It  should  not  require  a  very  far-seeing  mind  to 
discover  the  fallacy  of  the  tlrst  way.  At  each 
Sunday  service  or  at  some  urgent  appeal  we  put 
our  hands  into  our  pockets,  pull  out  and  select  a 
coin  with  hardly  a  thought  or  prayer,  except  per- 
haps a  hidden  sorrow  that  it  is  not  as  small  as  we 
would  wish  it;  for  we  are  not  administering  our 
money  as  a  trust  fund  now,  but  we  allow  our 
selfish  natures  to  have  full  sweep.  You  say, 
"  But  giving  in  an  impromptu  fashion  is  more  of 
an  instinctive  thank  offering."  Is  it?  Does  God 
consider  a  gift  given  with  very  little  thought — 
except  for  the  moment  only — as  full  of  praise  to 
Him  as  part  of  a  portion  of  money  dedicated  to 
Him  with  earnest  prayer  every  time  our  books 
are  balanced  and  we  put  aside  our  proportionate 
sum.  for  His  fund  ?  I  think  not.  So  the  first 
way  does  not  fulfill  our  motive,  thanks  to  God 
for  Christ's  love. 


92     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

"No,"  says  the  man  with  his  thousands,  "I 
give  systematically.  I  was  taught  as  a  boy  to 
put  in  the  plate  five  cents  a  Sunday,  and  for  my 
father's  sake  and  because  I  am  used  to  it,  1  do  the 
same  now."  How  would  it  be  with  our  friend 
if  the  thousands  he  possesses  became  hundreds 
or  tens  or  fives  ?  The  same  five  cents  ?  I  judge 
not,  for  men  of  that  stamp  have  rules  that  work 
only  one  way.  But  it  is  wasting  time  to  argue 
for  or  against  such  a  system, — dead,  machine-like 
grinding  out;  no  heart,  no  thanks,  no  love,  no 
joy, — in  fact,  no  Christianity.  So  we  are  shut 
out  from  these  two  ways  as  unscriptural,  com- 
monly practiced  though  they  may  be,  and  are 
forced  to  the  last  method. 

"Better"  is  the  implacable  enemy  of  "best." 
Many  a  soul  has,  perchance,  been  lost  by  choos- 
ing a  better  course — better  than  the  "worst" — 
instead  of  the  best.  Many  a  life  work  has  been 
partially  paralyzed  from  choosing,  maybe  from 
selfishness  or  because  of  ignorance,  the  better 
rather  than  the  best  work,  and  many  a  church 
has  been  indelibly  injured  in  its  labors  because  of 
the  choice  of  the  better  mode  of  collecting 
finances  (seemingly  easier,  not  easier  in  the  end  I 
believe)  rather  than  the  best  mode,  which  springs 
from  a  self-denying  prayerful  giving.  We  tread 
dangerous  ground.  A  man  is  judged  according 
to  the  light  he  has,  and  it  behooves  us  to  think 
carefully  as  we  discuss,  finally,  systematic  giving 
on  Christian  lines. 

(a)  Systematically, — each  week,  each  month, 
or  any  other  short  period  of  time,  but  regularly. 
There  are  two  reasons  for  this: 

1.  The  Bible  says  so.  This  much  we  are  sure 
of,  that  in  every  important  passage  relating  to 
giving  to  the  Lord,  regularity  and  system  are  in- 
sisted upon. 

2.  It  is  businesslike.    What  man  ever  man- 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary      93 

aged  his  business  unsystematically  and  suc- 
ceeded ?  When  will  men  manage  on  business 
principles  the  Lord's  work,— including  gifts  to 
Him  ?  Method  brings  joy,— a  real  joy,  a  glorious 
satisfaction.  A  man  in  love  with  his  business, 
and  thus  attending  to  it  carefully,  usually  suc- 
ceeds; while  one  spasmodically  attending  to  his 
work  just  as  his  feelings  go,  ends  m  failure,  and 
has  but  a  joyless  past  to  look  back  upon  into  the 
bargain.  Of  course,  the  strength  of  the  chain  is 
in  its  weakest  link,  and  if  we  are  strong  in  all  our 
links  of  business  in  the  Lord's  work,  except  that 
of  **  giving,"  that  one  will  be  our  hindrance.  If 
we  use  system  in  prayer,  Bible  study,  and  church 
work,  why  not,  in  ''giving"?  For  he  who 
keeps  indiscriminately  the  fifth,  seventh,  or 
ninth  day  as  his  Sabbath  soon  observes  no  Sun- 
day at  all.  So  we  must  use  common  sense, 
which  will  in  due  time  lead  us  to  systematic 
giving;  but  with  the  guidance  of  His  Spirit,  and 
"  In  His  name,"  we  shall  also  be  led  to  a  propor- 
tionate, systematic  giving. 

{b)  Proportionately.  Shall  we  pay  a  tenth  at 
least,  or  proportionately  to  our  income  above  or 
below  ? 

The  tithe  existed  long  before  the  Jewish  nation 
and  contemporaneously  with  it  among  outside 
nations,  and  was  claimed  by  God  from  Moses 
some  decades  before  the  specific  law  in  regard  to 
its  Levitical  introduction  and  use  was  expressed. 
So  it  was  adopted  and  continually  referred  to, 
last  by  Malachi  (3:  8-10),  and  side  by  side  with 
the  Sabbath,— which  institution  seems  to  have 
existed  in  crude  form  before  the  Jewish  nation, — 
without  direct  abrogation  in  the  New  Testament, 
and  it  should  continue  to  be  a  force  to-day,  while 
in  fact  it  was  observed  by  the  mass  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  up  into  the  Dark  Ages.  Is  there  not 
reason  for  keeping  this  idea  now  ?    But  in  the 


94     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

case  of  the  tithe's  use,  where  does  proportion 
come  in  ?  The  tenth  is  the  Lord's  by  debt,  just 
as  any  other  debt,  only  this  is  a  debt  of  love, 
honoring  the  Lord  with  the  first  fruits.  Then  if 
this  amount  is  according  to  our  income  de- 
termined before  God  in  prayer,  is  it  not  propor- 
tionate ?  But  suppose  God  prospers  us  beyond 
expectation;  since  we  have  asked  Him  to  bless 
us,  can  we  withhold  our  thanks  and  praise  offer- 
ing ?  But  this  extra  comes  under  the  Jewish 
category  of  freewill  offerings,  and  much  more 
tallies  with  Paul's  advice:  "As  the  Lord  hath 
prospered  him."  "  Freely  ye  have  received,  freely 
give." 

But  many  consider  the  tithe  not  binding  at  the 
present  time;  so  let  us  look  at  six  reasons  for 
simply  proportionate  giving: 

1.  It  is  scriptural.  It  is  the  foundation  of 
God's  word  that  gift  must  be  made  for  gift,  at  least 
so  far  as  it  is  possible  for  us  to  do  it. 

2.  It  is  recognizing  God's  hand  in  our  want, 
moderate  living,  or  comfortable  fortune,  thus 
bringing  us  closer  to  Him  in  love,  warning  us  in 
prosperity,  and  cheering  us  in  depression.  But  I 
believe  that  if  a  man  gives  his  proportionate  sum, 
God  will  take  care  of  the  rest,  and  his  income 
minus  the  Lord's  gift  will  accomplish  more  than 
all  if  kept  for  his  own  use.  It  is  simply  faith 
in  God.  He  requires  a  seventh  of  our  time,  and 
if  we  take  that  seventh  away  we  suffer  for  it  in 
body,  and  just  so  much  will  we  suffer  in  purse 
and  spiritual  blessing  by  taking  away  our  pro- 
portion in  money. 

3.  We  give  more  for  a  fact.  This  is  the 
practical  side  of  the  question.  A  seminary  man 
is  proverbially  "strapped,"  and  yet  I  am  sure  he 
will  be  convinced  that  in  the  past  he  has  been 
giving  far  too  little,  when  he  comes  to  reckon  it 
up  in  the  light  of  proportion. 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary      95 

4.  Our  hearts  keep  warm  from  not  having  to 
refuse  aid;  our  thought  goes  out  with  our  treas- 
ure, and  comes  into  full  sympathy  with  the  aided 
ones,  for  our  heart  is  not  touched  as  it  might  be 
by  "I  wonder  if  I  really  could  afford  that." 
Myers  says:  "There  is  a  difference  between 
throwing  money  into  a  collection  plate  and  put- 
ting money  into  it. "  The  thoughtless  giver  gives, 
and  cares  little  for  its  destination;  the  prayer-con- 
secrating giver  has  a  decided  interest  in  the  use 
his  money  is  put  to. 

5.  It  keeps  the  dead  hand  from  having  all  the 
giving  to  do.  All  honor  to  those  who  have  left 
beautiful  sums  for  grand  purposes  as  they  have 
left  this  world;  but  a  new  generation  is  here,  and 
is  it  not  more  well  pleasing  in  His  sight  to  give 
our  share  while  we  are  living  from  day  to  day, 
than  to  leave  it  all  when  we  cannot  possibly  take 
it  away  ?  And  besides,  we  may  miss  our  calcu- 
lations, and  our  untold  sums  slip  from  our  fingers 
before  we  depart  from  this  life;  and  where  then 
will  our  gifts  unto  the  Lord  be  ?  A  man  wants 
the  blessing  from  bringing  the  tithes  into  the 
storehouse  to  fall  on  his  own  head;  but  if  he 
does  not  have  a  chance  to  wait  for  it,  what  good 
will  all  his  money  be  to  him  ? 

6.  The  settling  once  for  all  of  a  proportionate 
sum  saves  wear  and  tear  of  deciding  each  time. 
Why,  we  have  covenanted  with  the  Lord,  and  if 
in  a  momentary  evil  hour  we  might  not  give  as 
much  as  as  we  should  in  a  normal  frame  of 
mind,  this  pledge  would  keep  us  strong  and  tide 
us  over  the  danger;  for  I  do  not  think  such 
artificial  bulwarks  erected  with  due  consideration 
undermine,  but  rather  strengthen,  one's  Christian 
character.  But  more  than  all,  a  deciding  on  un- 
biased lines  is  made  possible;  for,  besides  devot- 
ing our  money  systematically  and  proportionately, 
we  must  lay  it  aside  as  a  trust  fund. 


96     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

(c)    Administering  the  money  as  a  trust  fund. 

We  pay  our  proportion  regularly  into  a  fund, 
either  in  actual  cash  laid  aside  in  a  drawer,  or  as 
a  book  account  credited  from  our  income  or 
expense  account, — preferably  the  former;  and  as 
we  pay  out  the  sums,  we  duly  note  them  and 
balance  our  Lord's  books,  thus  keeping  as  strict 
an  account  with  Him  as  with  ourselves.  How 
can  we  disburse  this  money  in  any  but  a  judicial 
way  ?  With  what  a  broad  and  unconfmed  gaze 
may  we  sweep  the  horizon  of  distress  and  appeals 
for  aid!  Gladly  we  give  out  what  is  especially 
the  Lord's,  and  many  a  time  do  we  add  to  this  a 
thank  offering. 

This  adds  the  capstone  to  our  system.  Brothers 
in  Christ,  shall  we  then  decide  on  a  proportion 
before  God  as  a  gift  for  a  gift  ?  Shall  we  lay  this 
sum  aside  systematically  ?  And  finally,  shall  we 
disburse  this  fund  as  a  trust  fund  in  a  business, 
even  more,  in  a  prayerful  way.? — money  thor- 
oughly consecrated  beforehand,  and  at  last 
cheerfully  given,  for  **God  loveth  a  cheerful 
giver." 

Pitkin  was  very  active  in  the  work  of  present- 
ing missions  to  churches  and  young  peoples' 
societies.  For  the  first  two  years  in  the  seminary, 
he  was  at  this  constantly.  Either  he  or  Luce  or 
Eddy  was  out  almost  every  evening,  and  some- 
times all  of  them  were  out  at  the  same  time. 
Some  felt  that  he  was  overdoing  it  and  that  his 
primary  work  of  preparation  for  his  missionary 
life  was  neglected.  In  a  note  after  his  death, 
Professor  Palmer,  of  Yale,  whose  son  and  Pitkin 
were  out  riding  together  in  April,  1892,  when 
Alfred    Palmer   fell  from  his  horse  dead,   from 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary      97 

heart  failure,  speaks  of  the  feehng  of  disappoint- 
ment with  Pitkin's  sacrifice  of  his  studies,  but  in- 
terprets it  in  the  light  of  what  happened: 

"  In  my  poor  wisdom,  I  regretted  that  in  his 
seminary  course  he  so  sacrificed  the  opportunities 
for  solid  acquirement  and  preparation  for  his 
missionary  work,  in  journeyings  hither  and 
thither  to  make  popular  addresses  and  attend 
religious  gatherings.  We  can  see  now  that  it 
made  less  difference  than  it  then  appeared  to 
make,  in  his  ultimate  usefulness,  and  that  what 
good  he  did  then  was  clear  gain.  Yet  1  should 
feel  the  same  in  regard  to  another  man  next  year. 
It  is  not  wise  to  spend  the  seed-time  of  life  in  the 
attempt  to  harvest  something.  But  in  the  actual 
plan  of  his  life,  which  we  did  not  know,  doubt- 
less that  more  miscellaneous  activity  had  its  place 
and  purpose.  He  was  a  fine  fellow  and  he  died 
at  his  post  like  a  man.  It  is  not  what  we  should 
have  chosen  for  him,  but  what  his  Master  willed. 
In  the  prayer-meeting  in  which  my  son  and  he 
took  part,  the  evening  before  my  son's  death, 
Alfred  first  and  Pitkin  next,  alluded  to  a  text 
which  had  been  read  'Nevertheless,  when  the 
Son  of  Man  cometh,  shall  He  find  faith  on  the 
earth?'  They  spoke  of  their  idea  of  readiness 
for  the  Son  of  Man's  coming  to  every  one  in  his 
turn.  Pitkin  at  least  was  ready  for  the  fateful 
hour  and  found  faithful  in  it.  '  U,  si  sic 
omnes! '  " 

It  was  well  that  Pitkin  did  his  work  without 
waiting  for  the  future,  for  the  future  stopped  for 
him  as  it  began.  And  even  if  it  had  been  other- 
wise, while  it  is  possible  to  err  in  the  direction  in 
which  some  felt  that  he  erred,  it  is  better  to  err 


98     A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

in  that  direction  than  in  the  other.  While  men 
live,  let  them  live  without  passing  fruitless  days  in 
the  dream  of  fruitful  days  in  some  future  time  that 
may  never  come.  There  is  far  more  of  this 
among  young  men  than  of  the  intense  fervent 
zeal  which  burned  in  Pitkin,  as  it  did  in  his 
Master.  The  lesson  of  Bonar's  hymn  was  ever 
with  him: 

"  Time  worketh : 

Let  me  work  too. 
Time  undoeth : 

Let  me  do, 
Busy  as  time,  my  work  I  ply 
Till  I  rest  in  the  rest  of  eternity. 

"  Sin  worketh, 

Let  me  work  too  ; 
Sin  undoeth, 

Let  me  do. 
Busy  as  sin  my  work  I  ply 
Till  I  rest  in  the  rest  of  eternity. 

"  Death  worketh. 

Let  me  work  too; 
Death  undoeth, 

Let  me  do. 
Busy  as  death  my  work  I  ply 
Till  I  rest  in  the  rest  of  eternity." 

Something  told  his  soul  that  he  must  work  the 
works  of  Him  that  sent  him  while  it  was  day  for 
the  night  was  coming  when  no  man  could  work 
any  more.  Mr.  Lobenstine,  who  succeeded  him 
as  President  of  the  New  York  Volunteer  Union, 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary      99 

remembers  the  way  he  made  the  doing  of  his 
Father's  will  the  meat  and  drink  of  his  life: 


"I  followed  him  as  president  in  the  Union  and 
know  the  prayerful  work  he  put  into  it  and  the 
excellent  spirit  that  prevailed  amongst  its  mem- 
bers. Here,  as  elsewhere,  he  lived  for  Christ. 
His  work  was  his  all  absorbing  interest.  Zeal 
for  missions  consumed  his  life.  His  meat  and 
drink  seemed  to  be  to  work  for  the  heathen 
world.  We  used  to  urge  him  to  go  out  speaking 
less  and  to  spend  more  time  over  his  books,  but 
he  was  deaf  to  our  arguments.  Did  he  know 
that  for  him  the  night  was  coming  soon,  when 
he  must  stop  work?  Probably  not.  Yet  he 
never  doubted  that  he  was  led  of  God  in  the 
course  he  pursued  and  that  by  following  it,  he 
was  doing  His  work.  I  was  impressed  that  year 
at  Union — the  year  after  he  had  travelled — with 
the  large  '  back-correspondence '  he  carried  on, 
and  with  the  pains  he  always  took  to  help  every 
one  who  applied  to  him  or  seemed  in  need  of  it, 
though  I  think  it  must  have  been  hard  for  him  to 
do  so,  as  he  was  not  naturally  a  good  corre- 
spondent, and  we,  his  friends,  often  thought  he 
treated  us  badly  enough  in  the  letter  writing  line. 
It  was,  however,  but  another  instance  of  the  way 
he  let  his  service  of  his  Master  control  his  life 
and  take  the  precedence  over  all  other  claims. 
For  myself,  I  know  that  I  never  fared  so  well 
hearing  from  him  as  the  year  it  must  have  been 
hardest  for  him  to  find  time  to  write,  but  that 
year  I  was  especially  in  need  of  his  advice  for  the 
work  at  Yale. 

"Sometimes,  as  I  think  over  his  life,  it  seems 
as  though  I  knew  but  one  side  of  it,  for  our  in- 
tercourse centred  so  largely  about  one  thing. 
Yet  we  have  been  together,  on  many  different 


1 00    A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

occasions,  in  many  places.  We  have  tramped  and 
sailed  and  fished  together;  we  have  camped  out 
together;  we  have  visited  in  each  other's  homes; 
we  have  been  together  in  our  recreation  as  well 
as  our  work — still  as  I  remember  him  on  all  those 
happy  days  together,  it  seems  as  though  the 
Master  and  His  service  was  never  long  absent 
from  his  conversation  and  never  from  his  mind. 
It  was  not  a  part  of  his  life,  it  was  his  life,  and  it 
seems  to  me  that  his  last  message  was  its  per- 
fectly natural  end.  It  was  *  just  like  Horace  '  to 
say  that  then. 

"He  did  much  for  me  and  I  have  always 
looked  upon  his  friendship  as  one  of  my  greatest 
blessings.  It  would  be  hard  for  me  to  say  how 
much  1  owe  to  him;  but  I  know  he  helped  me 
much  and  taught  me  among  other  things,  that  a 
man  does  not  have  to  wait  until  he  is  thoroughly 
well  equipped — until  his  preparation  is  completed 
— before  he  can  begin  his  life  work  and  be  of 
real  service  to  his  fellow-men." 


During  his  middle  year,  he  and  his  associates 
spent  a  good  deal  of  time  working  up  interest  in 
the  Second  Quadrennial  Convention  of  the  Stu- 
dent Volunteer  Movement  held  in  Detroit,  March, 
1894.  One  of  his  characteristic  letters  to  Hunt- 
ington, who  was  in  the  Berkeley  Divinity  School 
at  Middletown,  Conn.,  indicates  his  interest  and 
his  breezy  methods.  He  is  writing  in  the  interest 
of  the  Inter-Seminary  Alliance  as  well  as  of  the 
Volunteer  Convention. 

"Dear  Trummy:  Well  how  do  you  do? 
Haven't  heard  from  you  in  a  dog's  age,  but  I 
suppose  you  are  grinding  harder  than  you  were 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary     loi 

the  other  year  when  your  favorite  trick  was  to 
cut  as  many  recitations  as  possible  without  get- 
ting hauled  up  and  allowed  to  attend  the  exami- 
nations somewhere  else.     But  don't  you  care,  old 
man,  the  goose  hangs  high  and  we' are  all  in  it! 
I  send  you  this  programme,  and  won't  you  see 
what  you  can  do  about  it?    The  seminary  has 
never  been   represented  before  and  this  is  the 
chance  of  your  life.     1  suppose  reduced  rates  may 
be  made,  but  I  am  not  sure.     We  are  making 
efforts  to  get  the  General  in  and  Scott  of  Virginia 
has   been   tackling  them.     The    Episc.    haven't 
been  showing  up  in  the  past  and  now  is  the  time 
to  start  them  off.     1  think  it  will  be  a  bully  con- 
vention, such  as  these  conventions  are     .     .     . 
that  is,  to  meet  the  other  seminary  men  and  get 
a  few  pointers.     But  mostly  to  get  together  and 
see  each  other  and  keep  the  seminaries  in  touch. 
Then  also  for  the  untravelled  ones,  it  is  a  capital 
thing  for  them  to  see  the  city.     But  the  thing  we 
want  this  year  is  to  get  as  many  seminaries  to- 
gether as  we  possibly  can  to  make  this  year  the 
high  water  mark  if   possible.     Of  course,   the 
Volunteer  Convention  comes  right  after  and  if 
you  are  going  to  that,  why  you  won't  want  to 
come  to  this,  but  that  will  not  keep  your  semi- 
nary from  being  represented  as  that  will  make  it 
all  the  better  for  sending  down  a  substitute,  who 
besides  will   probably  get  a   better  waking  up 
than  you  would.     Post  the  notice  up  or  do  any- 
thing with  it  you  want  and  let  me  know  in  the 
sweet   bye   and   bye.     Work    comes  very  hard 
these  days  and  there  is  a  good  deal  of  the  out- 
side speaking.     Next  term  it  will  be  mostly  every 
week  among  the  colleges  of  New  England  and 
New  York  under  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  stirring  up  for 
the  convention  at  Detroit  and  for  volunteers  m 
general.     Eddy  and  Luce  will  be  at  the  head  of 
the  work  and  I  will  work  in  wherever  I  can. 


102  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

We  have  made  twenty-three  speeches  thus  far 
this  term,  and  one  church  gave  the  foreign  board 
the  same  evening  that  we  spoke,  I905,  and  so  are 
supporting  a  missionary.  It  got  into  some  of  the 
papers  and  when  I  was  in  Philadelphia  the  other 
day,  they  told  me  they  had  been  reading  about 
the  work.  We  have  thus  addressed  about  4,000 
people  thus  far,  and  this  is  only  the  beginning  of 
the  winter  work.  But  I  suppose  you  are  right  in 
the  game  also,  only  you  are  the  lonesome  to  be 
called  on. 

"  Have  seen  '  Loke '  a  number  of  times,  and  at 
Thanksgiving  Mac  was  down  and  we  all  took 
dinner  with  him.  Doug,  vaccinated  Eddy  the 
other  week  and  he  had  a  sweet  time  with  the 
taking  thereof  ...  all  right  now!  Exams, 
come  next  week  and  then  I  fly  to  Boston.  I  was 
at  Hartford  Thanksgiving  and  spent  the  night 
there,  on  account  of  missing  the  train.  1  was 
sorry  not  to  know  whether  you  were  in  town  or 
not,  for  I  would  have  taken  your  little  bed  and 
put  you  on  the  floor,  but  as  it  was,  I  stayed  with 
the  Burrs  on  Main  Street. 

"My  piano  has  come  down  and  we  have  great 
times  in  the  early  evenings  getting  Hal  Tweedy 
to   beat  the   box    ...     he   can   do   it  some 

tco.     There  is  a  man  in  our  class,  H ,  who 

speaks  of  you  once  in  a  while.  Pretty  decent 
sort  of  a  chap!  Nothing  new  under  the  sun  has 
sprung  up,  and  when  I  see  you  again,  next  Feb- 
ruary, either  here  or  at  Detroit,  I'll  have  more  to 
tell. 

"  Keep  a  close  grip  on  the  Master  in  your 
speaking,  old  man,  and  give  God  the  glory  right 
along.  That  is  the  hardest  lesson  I  think  a  man 
has  to  learn. 

'*  Your  wife, 

**  Horace. 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary     lo^ 

*'I  can  sign  myself  that  way,  seeing  as  how 
you  are  to  be  a  'celebrate,'  and  so  no  future 
damsel  will  mind  reading  this  letter  if  she  finds 
it  tucked  away  somewhere." 

Mr.  Tweedy,  who  was  able  to  "beat  the  box," 
recalls  the  breezy  geniality  of  Pitkin,  his  at- 
mosphere of  candor  and  reality,  as  his  dominant 
qualities : 

"  No  new  stories,  no  special  experiences  occur 
to  me,  but  the  truest  impression  remains  of  the 
purest,  truest  and— if  the  adjective  is  rightly  in- 
terpreted—sweetest spirits  I  have  ever  known. 
There  was  somethig  so  sunny,  so  sincere,  so  sim- 
ple about  him.  Our  dens  were  at  one  end 
of  the  seminary  hallway;  and  he  was  ever 
bursting  into  my  room  with  a  laugh  or  a  jovial 
story,  or  dropping  in  for  a  quiet  talk  and 
leaving  behind  him  one  of  those  benedictions 
which  drift  from  a  man's  soul  into  a  fellow  soul. 
I  do  not  remember  ever  hearing  him  say  an  un- 
kind word  to  anybody.  I  cannot  recall  any 
action  of  his  which  I  felt  that  I  would  like  to 
change.  There  was  about  him  an  atmosphere  of 
religious  manliness,  of  devoutness,  without  sanc- 
timoniousness, and  of  piety,  without  a  suspicion 
of  hypocrisy  or  cant.  His  was  one  of  those  rare 
natui-es  that"  seem  to  have  been  born  expressly  to 
live  forth  in  their  simple  beauty  the  good  tidings; 
and  somehow,  being  dead,  he  yet  speaketh." 

His  effective  work  in  the  seminary  and  the  suc- 
cess of  his  work  with  Luce  and  Eddy  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Detroit  Convention  led  to  his  being 
invited  with  his  two  friends  to  spend  the  year 
1894-1895  in  the  travelling  secretaryship  of  the 


104  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Student  Volunteer  Movement.  He  accepted  this 
call.  It  will  be  best  to  tell  of  the  work  of  that 
year  in  a  separate  chapter.  At  its  close,  after  a 
summer  vacation  beginning  with  Northfield  and 
ending  with  building  a  boat,  he  returned  to  Union 
for  the  senior  year.  Luce  and  Eddy  going  for  this 
last  year  to  Princeton  Seminary.  This  year  in 
the  seminary,  he  gave  himself  to  his  seminary 
work.  Invitations  to  speak  came  almost  daily. 
He  refused  practically  all  and  gave  himself  to 
study  that  year  with  persistence  and  success. 

All  through  the  seminary  course,  work  had  its 
proper  relief  in  play.  Some  of  the  play  had  its 
distinctly  useful  side.  Dr.  W.  S.  Bainbridge, 
who  came  into  contact  with  Pitkin  in  the  work 
of  the  Students'  Club  in  New  York,  an  organiza- 
tion under  the  direction  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  designed  to  furnish  a  relig- 
ious centre  to  the  work  for  students  in  New  York, 
recalls  some  of  this  play  that  was  also  work: 

"While  he  was  a  student  at  Union  Seminary 
and  1  was  on  the  staff  of  the  Presbyterian  Hos- 
pital, I  got  to  know  a  large  number  of  the  theo- 
logical students.  One  day  in  the  spring,  I  think 
it  was  '94,  Pitkin  and  McGill  came  to  me  and 
asked  if  it  would  be  possible  for  them  to  get 
a  few  practical  points  before  they  should  go  to 
the  foreign  fields.  They  said  there  were  several 
and  mentioned  Eddy  and  Luce  who  were  going 
far  away  from  any  physicians  and  some  of  them 
were  going  to  take  wives  with  them,  and  they 
felt  the  need  of  some  information  on  certain  defi- 
nite subjects.     I  saw  the  need  as  they  did,  and 


At  Union  Theological  Seminary    105 

knowing  what  the  foreign  missionary  work 
really  is  from  personal  observation,  I  said  I  be- 
lieved it  could  be  arranged.  I  consulted  with  Dr. 
Hayes,  and  we  both  agreed  to  give  up  for  some 
two  months  and  a  half,  every  free  night  that  we 
had  for  these  men.  The  class  was  formed  of  Luce, 
Eddy,  Pitkin  and  McGill.  They  were  given  a 
few  books  to  study  and  every  other  evening  they 
would  come  to  the  Presbyterian  Hospital,  see  a 
few  practical  things  in  the  line  of  accidents  or 
general  medicine  in  the  wards,  and  then  for  an 
hour  and  a  half,  recite  the  lesson  given  to  them 
at  the  preceding  meeting  of  the  class.  The  nights 
that  I  did  not  have  these  students,  Dr.  Hayes  took 
them.  We  went  over  a  good  deal  of  ground 
which  would  be  of  practical  value,  and  since 
then,  I  have  heard  from  practically  all  of  these 
noble  fellows  that  they  have  had  some  use  from 
what  we  did  together  at  that  time.  One  evening 
we  came  to  the  subject  of  poisons.  They  had  all 
had  a  good  supper  and  it  was  a  question  as  to 
who  was  to  lose  the  good  food,  for  one  of  them 
was  to  have  his  stomach  washed  out.  They  drew 
lots  and  I  must  confess  that  it  was  the  first  time 
in  my  life  that  I  have  seen  theologues  put  up  a 
game  literally  on  one  of  their  own  number. 
They  fixed  it  up  that  it  would  come  to  Pitkin,  for 
I  was  told  he  had  put  up  some  pranks  on  the 
others  and  they  thought  it  was  justifiable  retri- 
bution. 

"Pitkin  was  one  of  God's  noblemen  and  his 
memory  and  life  must  be  to  others  as  it  has  been 
to  me — an  inspiration." 

His  seminary  course  gave  Horace  three  happy 
and  useful  years,  happy  because  useful.  He  was 
not  postponing  his  life  during  these  years;  he 
was  living.     He  believed  that  the  way  he  was 


io6  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkiii 

distributing  his  time  was  in  accordance  with 
duty  and  he  had  always  rested  easily  in  the  con- 
viction that  doing  the  will  of  God,  as  Dante  says, 
is  tranquillity. 


IV 

AMONG  THE  COLLEGES  OF  THE  WEST 

"  I  have  the  lines  drawn  and  the  current  flowing,  and  by 
throwing  my  weight  here  now  I  can  count  for  something.  If  I 
make  a  long  break  or  parenthesis  to  get  strong  I  shall  lose  my 
opportunity.  No  man  is  living  a  life  worth  living  unless  he  is 
willing,  if  need  be,  to  die  for  somebody  or  something."— 5a/;«- 
uel  Bowles. 

« I  will  most  gladly  spend  and  be  spent  out."—- 2  Cor.  12:13. 

"  In  the  summer  of  1894,"  says  Mr.  D.  Willard 
Lyon,  now  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  in  China,  but  then 
representing  the  Theological  Seminaries  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada  on  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  "  I 
attended  the   Students'  Summer  Conference  at 
Northfield,  where  I  fully  expected  to  see  Mr.  Pit- 
kin,for  his  name  was  being  considered  in  connec- 
tion with  the  travelling  secretaryship  of  the  Stu- 
dent Volunteer  Movement.     But  in  some  way  or 
other,  Mr.  Pitkin  had  gotten  an  inkling  of  the  fact 
that  his  name  might  be  proposed  in  this  connec- 
tion, so  he  deliberately  stayed  away.    Before  the 
end  of  the  Conference,  it  became  more  and  more 
evident  that  Mr.  Pitkin  was  one  of  the  men  to 
undertake  the  work  of  carrying  the  missionary 

107 


io8  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

message  to  the  colleges.  A  telegram  brought 
him  to  Northfield  just  as  the  Conference  was 
closing.  With  the  same  humility  that  had  kept 
him  away  from  the  Conference,  he  hesitated  to 
accept  the  invitation  of  the  Executive  Committee, 
but  when  once  his  duty  became  clear  to  him,  he 
not  only  offered  to  work  without  any  remunera- 
tion whatever,  but  generously  undertook  to  bear 
all  his  own  travelling  expenses  in  addition." 

Not  only  the  work  which  Pitkin  and  Eddy  and 
Luce  had  done  in  arousing  interest  in  the  Detroit 
Convention  but  also  their  work  as  Christian  men 
in  College  and  as  Volunteers  since  and  their  per- 
sonal qualifications,  marked  them  out  as  the  ex- 
ceptionally prepared  men  for  the  travelling  Secre- 
taryship of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  and 
they  agreed  to  accept  the  call.  Pitkin  spent  the 
summer  in  prayer  and  preparation.  On  August 
i8th,  he  wrote  from  New  Hartford  to  Hunting- 
ton: 

"  1  hope  you  will  go  out  to  the  Episcopal  sem- 
inaries in  the  fall  and  stir  them  up.  It  may  open 
the  way,  too,  for  the  secretary  who  will  be  up 
in  that  region  some  time  in  the  winter. 

"I  don't  know  whereabouts  in  China  your 
work  will  lie.  I  think  that  you  can  count  on  my 
being  in  the  region  of  Peking.  I  have  sent  in  my 
application  to  the  American  Board  in  order  that 
if  they  grant  it  soon,  I  can  use  it  in  my  work  dur- 
ing the  winter.  Words  from  a  man  far  enough 
along  to  be  accepted  by  a  board  will  come  with 
more  force  than  from  a  stripling  who  everybody 
thinks  will  never  get  to  the  field  in  the  end. 


Among  the  Colleges  of  the  West    109 

"Well  I  must  stop.  Pray  for  us  as  we  for 
you. 

"Why  not  revive  the  old  i  Thess.  5:  25  ? 
**  Yours  in  the  grandest  work  in  the  world, 

'*H.  T.  P." 

Sickness  prevented  his  attending  a  Conference  at 
Lake  Mohonk  as  he  had  planned.  But  in  October, 
he  began  his  work  as  secretary,  making  his  first 
visit  to  the  Reformed  Presbyterian  Seminary  at 
Allegheny,  Pa.,  on  October  2.  During  the  year, 
he  visited  the  important  institutions  in  all  the 
states  from  Ohio  to  Colorado  and  from  North 
Dakota,  Minnesota,  Wisconsin  and  Michigan, 
south  to  Kansas.  Eddy  and  Luce  agree  in  their 
judgment  as  to  the  character  and  result  of  his 
work.     The  former  writes  from  India: 

**  The  Western  colleges  which  have  been  the 
strength  of  the  missionary  movement  from 
the  beginning,  fell  to  Pitkin.  And  it  was 
providential.  He  was  able  not  only  to  secure 
more  volunteers  than  any  of  us,  but  also 
to  use  his  gift  for  organization  in  the  field 
which  then  most  needed  it  and  could  best 
carry  out  his  methods  and  suggestions.  During 
the  first  half  of  the  year,  we  separated  and  worked 
apart.  After  Christmas,  we  came  together  again 
for  the  campaigns  in  Chicago,  New  York  and 
Philadelphia.  In  neither  of  the  former  were  we 
able  to  accomplish  much  when  working  together. 
Each  was  accustomed  to  his  own  methods.  But 
in  Philadelphia,  we  prayed  for  a  deeper  unity  and 
greater  power.  On  the  morning  of  the  last  day, 
I  remember  hearing  the  saintly  Peter  Scott,  then 
just  returned  from  Africa,   praying  that  Pitkin 


1 10  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

might  be  filled  with  the  Spirit  before  he  spoke  that 
night.  We  were  all  in  need  of  deeper  blessing. 
I  do  not  know  how  Pitkin  spent  the  day.  He 
was  alone  in  prayer  and  so  were  we.  But  1  shall 
not  forget  hearing  him  that  night.  It  was  evi- 
dent that  something  had  happened  and  that  there 
had  been  a  definite  transaction  between  his  soul 
and  God.  It  was  evident  that  the  Spirit  of  God  was 
upon  him  by  the  presence  of  Jesus  Himself  in  all  he 
said  and  did.  It  was  a  mass  meeting  of  students 
and  though  it  was  already  late,  he  held  the  entire 
audience  with  great  power.  Nor  was  the  blessing 
only  temporary.  From  that  time  on,  there  was 
more  fruit  in  his  work  in  the  colleges.  I  remem- 
ber his  showing  me  a  few  months  afterwards, 
his  note-book  in  which  he  had  prayed  for  men 
by  name  even  in  the  colleges  he  had  visited  be- 
fore he  received  this  anointing  of  the  Spirit. 
Man  after  man  had  decided  and  given  his  life  to 
God  and  the  mission  field  long  after  he  had  left 
the  college,  yet  as  a  direct  result  of  his  work  and 
prayer.  It  was  a  rebuke  and  a  lesson  to  see  the 
power  of  his  prayer  life,  in  its  capacity  and  wide 
sympathy  as  he  kept  in  his  grasp  his  whole  '  back 
track,'  and  in  its  definiteness,  persistence  and 
faith." 

Mr.  Luce  writing  from  China,  expressed  the 
same  judgment : 

"Pitkin  took  the  field  of  the  middle  West, 
where  most  of  missionary  interest  had  at  that 
time  been  awakened.  Not  a  little  work  had 
been  done  in  creating  and  organizing  the  mis- 
sionary life  of  the  colleges,  but  it  needed  strength- 
ening, unifying  and  more  careful  detailed  organ- 
ization. It  was  for  this  work  that  Pitkin  was 
especially  fitted.     He   had  a   mind   for   minute 


Among  the  Colleges  of  the  West    1 1 1 

things,  for  working  things  out  in  detail  and  this 
power  together  with  his  deep  prayer  life  brought 
to  the  work  in  the  West,  inspiration  and  increased 
efficiency.  In  his  letters  how  often  he  spoke  of 
praying  for  the  'back  track'  as  he  called  the  in- 
stitutions which  he  had  already  visited.  His 
faithfulness  in  praying  for  that  '  back  track  '  is 
seen  in  the  large  numbers  who  volunteered  after 
he  had  left  the  institutions  behind. 

"As  to  methods  of  work,  the  secretaries  for 
the  year  worked  in  marked  harmony  because 
they  had  long  thought  and  prayed  and  talked 
together  about  this  work.  In  the  matter  of  se- 
curing volunteers,  it  was  without  doubt  the  most 
conservative  year  up  to  that  time.  It  was  agreed 
that  no  person  should  volunteer  while  the  secre- 
retary  was  in  the  institution,  unless  that  person 
had  previously  considered  in  a  personal  way  the 
matter  of  missions  as  a  life-work.  This  prin- 
ciple was  faithfully  adhered  to,  and  we  believe 
with  good  results.  It  was  estimated  that  at  least 
half  of  those  who  volunteered  sent  in  their  dec- 
laration cards  after  the  secretaries'  visits.  It  was 
for  this  *  back  track '  that  Pitkin  poured  out  his 
heart  to  God  without  ceasing,  and  God  heard  and 
answered  abundantly." 


From  each  college  he  visited,  he  sent  back  to 
the  office  of  the  Volunteer  Movement  a  careful 
report.  These  reports  are  full  of  evidence  of  his 
ability  and  painstaking  care  in  looking  after  the 
details  of  organization  and  counsel  necessary  to 
insure  permanency  and  they  are  interspersed  with 
shrewd  observations  and  comments.  He  com- 
mends a  student  in  a  theological  school  as  "a 
'  common  sense  piety '  sort  of  fellow  who  wiU 


1  12  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

make  a  good  man — bound  to  get  to  the  field 
through  any  Board  that  will  send  him."  He 
frankly  describes  the  faculty  in  another  theological 
school  as  "  neutral  as  regards  missions."  He  re- 
joices in  the  fact  that  in  another  institution,  a 
certain  energetic  student  would  "  be  out  a  year — 
better  so,  as  he  did  all  the  work  himself  and 
caused  discontent.  Now  all  will  work  together." 
In  a  college  in  Wisconsin,  he  says  the  "  S.  V.  M. 
has  a  black  eye  by  unworthy  volunteers.  Out 
of  forty,  only  two  have  reached  the  field."  He 
records  his  judgment  that  "  only  those  practically 
sure  of  further  missionary  study  should  be  allowed 
to  sign  (the  Volunteer  declaration).  Ignoring 
this  in  the  past  has  been  disastrous."  He  points 
out  the  men  who  are  leaders  and  those  who  are 
likely  to  become  so  to  the  end  that  they  may  be 
followed  up  and  his  reports  of  volunteers  con- 
tain the  names  of  those  who  have  since  completed 
their  preparation  and  gone  out  to  Korea,  Persia, 
Mexico,  Syria  and  other  lands.  He  was  ever 
careful  to  promote  prayer  as  well  as  study  and  he 
scattered  leaflets  on  prayer  wherever  they  would 
do  good.  From  the  State  University  in  North 
Dakota,  he  reports:  "Two  'Secret  Prayers' 
planted  with  strong  suspicions  of  new  prayer 
life  being  developed";  from  Yankton  College, 
**  Students  very  poor  but  one  *  Prayer  set '  planted. 
Others  will  follow";  from  the  South  Dakota 
State  University  at  Vermillion,  "Eight  'prayer 
sets '  planted.  .  .  .  Means  business.  .  .  . 
'.Prospects  bright  as  the  promises  of  God.' "    From 


Among  the  Colleges  of  the  West    113 

the  Nebraska  Wesleyan  Univfrsity,  he  writes  in 
the  way  of  advice  to  the  next  secretary  who  may 
visit  the  institution,  "Push  to  conclusive  think- 
ing. They  will  give  you  enthusiastic  turnouts, 
particularly  after-meetings.  Use  them — expect 
great  things."  His  advice  for  the  next  visitor  to 
the  Normal  School,  Peru,  Neb.,  whose  president 
he  pronounced  a  "fine  man"  is: 

'*  To  be  broad  and  show  how  by  facing  this 
question,  as  the  Lord  calls  most  of  them  to  home 
work,  they  will  then  stay  to  enter  teaching  as  a 
Christian  occupation  and  try  to  instill  into  pupils 
a  practical  (very  important!)  Christianity.  There 
is  a  tremendous  field  open  for  Christian  teachers 
who  realize  their  opportunities  in  public  schools." 

Of  the  Normal  School  at  Lincoln,  he  writes: 
"A  grand  opening — not  for  volunteers,  perhaps, 
but  for  sending  Christian  teachers  to  home  schools 
to  teach  foreign  missions." 

Other  bits  of  advice  for  future  visits  to  insti- 
tutions, which  he  had  visited,  are: 

"  Go  in  hot— all  clear  field.  But  don't  urge  to 
too  hasty  decisions.  Sow  the  seed — reap  that  of 
last  year's  sowing. 

"Doctor  is  head  of  faculty— but  cranky.  I 
rubbed  him  wrong  way.     Look  out! 

"  Urge  one  thing  for  Band,  /.  e.,  life! 

"Go  in  and  push  to  limit.  There  will  be  re- 
bound enough. 

"  Tie  to  B ,  get  the  facts  from  him— but  do 

your  own  thinking  and  conclusions." 

Of  a  visit  in  Colorado,  he  reports: 


114  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

"  My  work  spoiled  in  part  by  insufficient  warn- 
ing. Ran  into  Booth,  Gunsaulus  and  minstrel 
show — so  no  opportunity  except  to  try  for  picked 
up  meetings." 

In  the  reports  of  the  series  of  meetings  which  he 
and  Luce  and  Eddy  held  in  the  medical  schools  in 
New  York  City  and  Philadelphia  in  January,  he 
calls  the  Hahnemann  Medical  College  in  Phila- 
delphia, *'the  strongest  spiritual  man's  college," 
noting  specially  the  influence  of  Peter  Scott  who 
led  a  prayer-meeting  every  morning  with  from 
thirty-five  to  forty  present.  Bellevue  Medical  in 
New  York  is  pronounced  the  ''most  godless  in- 
stitution in  New  York  City."  Of  the  Volunteer 
Band  in  an  Eastern  theological  school,  he  bluntly 
reports  that  it  is  killed  by  its  chairman,  **  fresh 
and  useless."  He  often  refers  to  "fighting- 
question-men,"  that  is  men  who  are  trying  to 
get  away  from  the  appeal  of  need  and  the 
whispers  of  duty  and  will  not  face  the  issue 
squarely.     From  a  College  in  Illinois,  he  writes: 

''Meeting  led  to  meeting.  It  was  Washing- 
ton's Birthday — so  time  was  free.  At  each  meet- 
ing it  was  shown  volunteering  meant  business. 
Two  girls  their  mothers  wouldn't  let  come  after 
the  first  meeting.  The  best  men  and  women 
started  thinking  deeply.  The  last  meeting  was 
memorable  for  the  presence  of  Him.  The  whole 
work  is  on  a  new  plane.  The  literature  will  be 
bought  and  read — a  study  class  will  be  formed. 
Prayer  will  be  pursued.  The  nine  and  others 
who  met  last  will  pray  for  each  other.    A  revival 


Among  the  Colleges  of  the  West    1 15 

may  be  the  result.  The  Y.  M.  &  Y.  W.  work  is 
very  low.  Of  ninety  Christian  men,  fifty  are 
members  of  the  Y.  M.  and  of  fifty  Christian  girls 
twenty  are  members  of  the  Y.  W.  This  mis- 
sionary interest  will  bring  new  life  to  the  work- 
ers.    Oh,  God  has  been  good! " 

From  another  institution  in  the  same  state  he  re- 
ports: "  A  revival,  of  three  weeks  but  not  a  sign 
could  I  see  of  it."  In  another  college  he  was 
eager  to  get  some  good  men  interested.  The 
band  was  "just  a  little  chumpy  set."  His  last 
report  sent  in  closes  with  an  appeal  to  rescue  the 
situation  in  a  certain  college  in  Ohio  by  prayer. 

In  addition  to  his  reports,  he  wrote  constantly 
to  the  offices  and  his  letters  are  marked  by  his 
characteristic  breeziness.     In  one,  he  apologizes 
for  a  mistake  that  had  been  made:  "  I  am  regret- 
ful—I was  not  omniscient,  but  tried  to  get  at  the 
truth.     Hurrah  for  me;  I'm  always  a  puttin'  my 
foot  in  it.     .     .     .     Be  very   patient  (I  expect 
only  God  can  give  it  to  you)  with  me  and  my 
mistakes."     Again,    he  writes:  ''Please  always 
send  to  me  all  cards  (signed  by  Volunteers)  sent 
in  from  my  back  track  to  the  office.     We  have 
agreed  on  a  system  for  sizing  up  the  signers  and 
will  use  the  backs  of  the  cards  for  it."     From  a 
college  in  Iowa,  he  writes:  '*  The  Lord  has  been 
blessing  me  richly  thus  far.     The  hearts  of  the 
students  have  been  opened  by  no  power  but  that 
from  on  High.     Now  I  am  in  the  hardest  place  in 
the  States.     Oh,  for  a  fullness!     I  am  confident 
He  will  not  desert  me.     You  know  I  have  tried 


ii6  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Him  too  many  times  the  last  few  months  to  be 
afraid  of  His  lack — but  my  lack;  well  may  I  be 
kept  weak  as  weak  can  be! "  In  the  Dakotas  he 
writes  a  letter  dated  "En  route — on  cattle  train. 
Two  miles  an  hour  for  Mitchell  from  Fargo. 
Nov.  8th  or  9th,"  closing,  "Excuse  me  if  I  can't 
write  straight  English,  I  am  tired." 

During  the  year,  he  contributed  a  number  of 
short  articles  to  The  Student  Volunteer,  the  organ 
of  the  movement,  full  of  practical  suggestions 
for  the  better  organization  of  the  work.  In  the 
"Secretaries'  Corner"  he  says: 

"For  effectual  work  and  prayer,  a  Band  re- 
quires a  unity  born  of  complete  sympathy  among 
its  members.  This  sympathy  often  is  weakened 
by  unjust  criticism  resulting  from  an  ignorance 
and  consequent  misunderstanding  of  a  fellow- 
volunteer's  motives.  Does  your  Band  know 
itself  ?  Do  all  know  why  any  one  member  lacks 
time  to  work  for  missions  or  that  another  is  tor- 
tured by  hindrances  crowding  in  to  keep  him 
from  the  field,  while  both  fear  being  misunder- 
stood ?  Small  attendance  at  the  Band  meeting 
often  is  a  symptom  of  such  condition.  Try  a 
testimony  meeting,  every  volunteer  telling  his 
reason  for  signing  the  declaration  and  his  present 
position.  Speak  freely,  frankly  and  prayerfully. 
Make  the  meeting  deeply  devotional  and  pray  for 
each  other  by  name.  Arrange  lists  for  daily 
prayer  that  definite  obstacles  be  removed  and 
perfect  sympathy  and  unity  prevail.  Great  bless- 
ing may  result." 

Again  he  urges  upon  volunteers  their  responsi- 


Among  the  Colleges  of  the  West    117 

bility  for  removing  any  financial  impediment  to 
their  acceptance  by  the  Mission  Boards: 

**  The  Volunteer  Movement  says :    '  Recruit  the 
men,  money  will  be  forthcoming.'    But  this  does 
not  mean  that  the  money  will  appear  without  the 
utmost  exertions  of  the  men.    Fellow-volunteers, 
as    a   Gideon's   band,    as   men   planning   to   go 
abroad,  if  God  permit,  are  we  defeatmg  the  ac- 
complishment  of  our  aim  by  expecting  Board 
secretaries  and  missionary  pastors  to  work  their 
life-blood  out  to  make  possible  our  saihng?   The 
Boards  do  not  send  us— Jesus  Christ  sends  through 
the  Board.     His  money  is  in  the  Church.     It  is 
not  given  because  of  lack  of  interest,  of  which 
ignorance  is  at  the  root.     Shall  we  dare  to  leave 
school  without  every  young  people's  society  in 
the  vicinity  having  been  educated  and  fired  by 
our  words  and  by  the  exertions  of  missionary 
committees  enthused  by  our  suggestions  and  the 
books  lent  from  the  college  library  ?   The  Church 
cannot  withstand  His  appeals  through  us.     Go, 
expecting  great  and  definite  things;  otherwise, 
can  we  say  to  Him,  if  refused  by  the  Boards  for 
lack  of  funds :  '  I  really  planned  to  go '  ?  " 

In  the  same  issue,  March,  1895,  he  presents  an 
elaborate  scheme  for  ''  Band  Correspondence  and 
Records  "  with  a  view  to  holding  for  the  mis- 
sionary work  all  volunteers  who  have  left  their 
institutions.  In  the  issue  for  May,  1895,  he  speaks 
a  word  for  that  squareness  and  frankness  which 
he  had  always  exemplified  in  himself: 

"  We  volunteers  need  special  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  when  approaching  our  college  com- 


Ii8  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

mencement.  A  volunteer  has  stood  for  years  it 
may  be,  as  one  planning  to  enter  missionary 
service,  should  God  permit.  Perhaps  his  educa- 
tion is  completed,  yet  family  and  financial  reasons 
must  temporarily  detain  him  at  home.  Maybe  he 
has  some  years  still  of  graduate  work  on  which 
he  cannot  immediately  enter  because  of  finances. 
Shall  he  boldly  tell  his  fellow  students  his  posi- 
tion ?  Here  many  a  volunteer  makes  a  mistake. 
He  simply  says  nothing  and  quietly  slips  away. 
Silence  suggests  guilt.  From  that  moment  he 
throws  himself  open  to  all  manner  of  unjust 
criticism,  whereby  in  future  years  he  and  the 
whole  movement  through  him,'  may  be  seriously 
harmed.  How  much  better,  should  every  grad- 
uating volunteer  state  plainly  and  frankly  in  one 
of  the  final  student  meetings  his  present  position 
and  future  expectations,  making  full  profession 
of  his  fixed  determination  and  ambition  to  enter 
the  foreign  field  whenever  God  would  permit. 
Supposing  he  be  seriously  hindered,  such  affirma- 
tion may  be  used  of  God  for  others  in  mightily 
strengthening  weak  decisions  and  in  leading  to 
new  formed  purposes.  Our  last  testimony! 
Shall  we  not  ring  it  out  for  His  glory,  every  vol- 
unteer who  graduates  this  year!  " 

In  the  closing  issue  of  the  little  magazine  for 
the  college  year,  he  urges  some  special  sugges- 
tions for  the  summer  work  of  volunteers: 

"  I.  See  that  all  graduating  volunteers  give 
their  public  testimony  before  leaving  the  college. 

"2.  Have  every  volunteer  take  at  least  two 
missionary  books  from  the  library  for  the  sum- 
mer. If  necessary,  let  the  Band  be  responsible 
to  the  librarian  for  their  safe  return. 

"3.     See  that  a  prayer  list  for  the  summer  is 


Among  the  Colleges  of  the  West    1 19 

made  out  for  the  Band,  definite  requests  being 
attached  to  each  name.  This  could  be  done  at 
the  last  Band  meeting.  This  season  is  the  critical 
one  for  many  volunteers.  Parents  must  be  won 
over,  churches  awakened,  self  conquered.  Pray 
one  for  another  definitely. 

"4.  Press  missionary  speaking  on  the  con- 
science of  each  volunteer.  Draw  a  few  startling 
facts  from  the  table  in  The  Student  Volunteer, 
Jan.,  '95.  Burn  in  the  imperative  need  of  using 
the  opportunity  of  this  summer.  '  We  are  to  be 
missionaries  now.'  Remember:  (i)  If  possi- 
ble, always  speak  to  introduce  some  scheme  for 
giving.  (2)  Keep  account  of  increased  gifts  to 
report  next  fall  to  the  office." 


He  was  ready  to  have  his  own  sincerity  tested 
by  the  practice  of  his  life,  especially  in  the  matter 
of  giving  and  he  pressed  this  as  a  good  test  of 
reality  upon  others. 

This  year  in  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement 
was  a  year  of  service  almost  limitless  in  its  influ- 
ence. In  it,  Pitkin  left  an  ineffaceable  imprint 
upon  scores  and  hundreds  of  students  from  New 
England  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  He  revealed 
higher  ideals  and  he  brought  more  divine  power 
to  many  young  men  and  women  beginning  their 
serious  living;  and  all  over  the  world,  at  home 
and  abroad,  are  those  who  owe  to  him  their 
chief  impulse  to  the  wider  service.  "  I  don't  think 
we  ever  had  a  guest  more  zealous  for  God's  serv- 
ice," writes  one  in  whose  house  he  had  been  en- 
tertained. **I  can  never  forget,"  says  another, 
"the  day   Mr.  Pitkin  was  at  college,  the  first 


1 20  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

winter  I  was  there.  He  spoke  twice  and  the 
texts  which  he  used,  I  marked  in  my  Bible.  One 
was  'The  field  is  the  world,'  and  the  other,  *  As 
Thou  hast  sent  Me  into  the  world,  even  so  1  send 
them  into  the  world.'  I  remember  the  first  was 
a  very  strong  missionary  appeal  and  coming  from 
one  who  was  soon  to  go  to  the  field,  it  was 
doubly  forceful." 

Mr.  H.  W.  Hicks,  Assistant  Secretary  of  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Missions,  writes: 

"  It  was  through  Mr.  Pitkin  that  I  first  became 
interested  in  foreign  missions.  It  was  on  a  Sun- 
day night  in  connection  with  his  visit  at  Cornell 
University,  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood  of 
1894.  He  had  addressed  a  meeting  at  my  re- 
quest, in  the  Congregational  Young  People's 
Society  of  Christian  Endeavor,  and  after  the 
meeting  followed  me  to  my  room  at  about  eleven 
o'clock  on  the  campus.  He  spent  an  hour  with 
me,  presenting  to  me  the  claims  of  missions. 
Although  1  did  not  become  a  student  volunteer  at 
that  time,  I  have  always  dated  my  positive  inter- 
est, which  has  led  me  to  my  present  place,  from 
the  hour  of  that  interview.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  I  rejoice  very  greatly  over  the  results  of  his 
work,  which  have  raised  up  so  many  young  men 
to  do  the  work  for  which  he  gave  his  life." 

The  work  that  Pitkin  did  was  of  the  greatest 
value  to  the  Volunteer  Movement.  In  some 
institutions  in  the  West,  mistakes  had  been  made 
by  his  predecessors  in  the  secretaryship.  These 
created  a  prejudice  against  the  Movement,  which 


Among  the  Colleges  of  the  West    121 

he  had  to  overcome.  In  many  cases,  he  did 
overcome  it,  and  everywhere  by  his  care  and 
patience  and  progress,  he  strengthened  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Movement  and  confirmed  its  mem- 
bers. The  Rev.  Harlan  P.  Beach,  Educational 
Secretary  of  the  Movement  bears  strong  testi- 
mony to  the  will  and  enduring  character  of  his 
work:  "Perhaps  his  services,"  says  Mr.  Beach, 
"rank  only  second  among  the  scores  of  secre- 
taries that  have  served  the  organization.  Both  in 
the  colleges  and  at  the  summer  schools,  his  ear- 
nestness, definiteness,  enthusiasm  and  constant 
prayerfulness,  made  contact  with  him  a  thing 
long  to  be  remembered." 

Mr.  D.  Willard  Lyon,  who  knew  well  what 
Pitkin  was  doing  and  the  method  of  his  doing  it, 
says: 

"  During  that  year  which  he  gave  to  the  work 
of  the  Student  Volunteer,  it  was  my  privilege  to 
be  quite  intimately  associated  with  him.  The 
correspondence  from  the  colleges  regarding  his 
visits  and  all  his  own  reports  passed  through  my 
hands.  There  were  four  things  which  impressed 
me  very  much  in  his  work  during  that  year.  He 
had  great  power  in  working  with  the  select  few. 
It  was  his  habit  to  search  out  in  each  college  that 
he  visited,  the  few  who  had  the  missionary  spirit, 
and  tie  himself  to  these  until  he  had  gotten  them 
thoroughly  committed  to  several  definite  lines  of 
action.  In  his  public  addresses,  he  could  not  be 
weak,  but  he  was  particularly  strong  in  personal 
dealing  and  in  work  with  the  few. 

"He  was  extremely  practical.  There  was 
scarcely  a  college  that  he  visited  where  he  did 


122  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

not  start  a  missionary  alcove  in  tlie  library  and 
get  the  students  pledged  to  raising  some  definite 
sum  towards  the  support  of  a  foreign  missionary. 
He  organized  a  Volunteer  Band  wherever  there 
were  as  many  as  two  volunteers.  He  started 
many  students  in  the  work  of  speaking  on  mis- 
sions to  the  churches.  He  suggested  feasible 
methods  for  the  awakening  of  a  missionary  inter- 
est among  the  students  of  many  a  college,  rie 
did  not  live  in  the  clouds,  although  he  often  stood 
on  the  mountain-top  where  he  could  catch  vi- 
sions of  the  world-wide  field  and  the  God-planned 
campaign.  His  strength  lay  in  the  fact  that  he 
could  translate  his  visions  into  practical  lines  of 
action. 

**  He  was  very  thorough.  It  was  not  enough 
with  him  to  make  suggestions.  He  saw  to  it 
that  the  proper  steps  were  taken  to  put  the  sug- 
gestions into  effect.  He  knew  how  to  bring 
things  to  pass.  To  his  vigilance  during  the  time 
of  a  visit  at  a  college,  he  added  an  effective  use 
of  correspondence  with  the  colleges  on  his 
'back-track,'  stirring  them  up  to  go  on  in  the 
good  work  they  had  begun.  His  own  thorough- 
ness did  much  to  beget  the  spirit  of  thorough- 
ness in  those  among  whom  he  worked. 

"  He  was  most  conscientious  in  fulfilling  his 
obligation  to  pray  for  the  students.  In  the  busy 
rush  of  travelling  life,  he  always  found  time  to 
pray  for  the  colleges  that  he  was  yet  to  visit,  that 
the  students  might  be  prepared  to  hear  God's 
voice  and  obey  it.  In  his  memorandum  book, 
he  kept  full  notes  regarding  each  difficulty  he 
met  with,  either  in  the  life  of  the  college  or  in 
the  lives  of  individuals,  that  he  might  intelligently 
intercede  in  their  behalf  when  he  was  gone  from 
them.  He  loved  especially  to  pray  for  those  who 
had  poured  out  their  hearts  to  him  and  had  asked 
for  his  prayers." 


Among  the  Colleges  of  the  West    1 23 

At  the  close  of  the  year,  Pitkin  attended  the 
Summer  Student  Conferences,  working  especially 
at  the  Young  Women's  Conferences  at  Lake 
Geneva,  Wisconsin,  and  at  Northfield.  Mr.  Lyon's 
sister,  now  Mrs.  H.  B.  Sharman,  who  was  also 
one  of  the  travelling  secretaries  for  the  year,  was 
present  with  him  at  Lake  Geneva  and  remembers 
the  intense  earnestness  of  the  work  he  did  there: 

"How  little  I  dreamed  as  I  said  good-bye  to 
Mr.  Pitkin  on  the  wharf  at  the  Geneva  Camp  in 
'95  that  I  should  never  see  him  again,  and  that 
after  a  few  brief  years  his  life  should  be  crowned 
and  completed  by  a  martyr's  death  in  China. 
We  had  been  comrades  in  the  service  of  the  Stu- 
dent Volunteer  Movement — he  and  I — and  his 
two  true  Yale  friends,  Mr.  Eddy  and  Mr.  Luce. 
From  the  time  we  met  at  the  'setting-up  confer- 
ence' in  September  until  our  common  work 
closed,  in  the  summer  following,  we  were  all 
comrades  in  service.  My  memories  of  Mr.  Pit- 
kin and  his  two  friends  are  of  a  pervading  cour- 
tesy and  of  sincere  and  open-hearted  co-operation. 
I  remember  the  kindest  of  brotherly  notes  that 
caught  me  on  the  wing  and  told  me  that  Mr.  Pit- 
kin, who  was  passing  from  college  to  college  in 
the  great  central  West,  was  remembering  to 
pray  for  me  and  sympathizing  with  me  in  the 
difficulties  1  had  to  face. 

**  But  it  was  not  until  the  Women's  Conference 
at  Geneva,  that  I  felt  I  had  learned  in  a  some- 
what adequate  degree  to  know  Mr.  Pitkin.  I 
had  admired  him  before — one  could  not  see  his 
strong  face  and  not  begin  to  admire  him — at 
Geneva  I  came  to  know  him.  He  had  been  con- 
ducting the  missionary  institute  at  the  Men's 
Conference  which  had  just  closed,  and  he  stayed 


124  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

over  to  help  me  with  the  same  work  at  the 
Women's  Conference,  and  to  conduct  a  special 
training  conference  for  summer  campaign  speak- 
ers. He  entered  most  sympathetically  into  my 
plans  and  gave  me  the  benefit  of  his  experience 
and  special  knowledge  of  the  colleges  of  the 
West.  He  planned  with  me,  counselled  me  and 
worked  his  hardest  for  the  development  of  the 
missionary  spirit  of  the  gathering.  Every  day, 
before  the  missionary  institute  hour,  he  came  to 
my  tent  and  we  sat  under  a  tree  and  discussed 
very  frankly  the  plans  for  the  day,  and  organized 
the  effort.  In  these  consultations,  he  showed 
himself  clear-headed,  thoroughly  practical,  wisely 
balanced,  stably  enthusiastic  and  intensely  in 
earnest,  it  was  a  personal  delight  and  inspira- 
tion to  me  to  be  thus  associated  with  him.  My 
point  of  view  was  such,  that  it  is  more  difficult 
for  me  to  describe  the  effect  Mr.  Pitkin  pro- 
duced on  that  conference  of  several  hundred  col- 
lege women.  The  effectiveness  of  the  mission- 
ary phase  of  it  was  certainly  due  in  considerable 
measure  to  him.  There  was  a  deep  interest 
manifest  among  the  girls  in  regard  to  their  per- 
sonal responsibility  to  the  foreign  field.  Many 
of  them  came  to  us  for  personal  interviews — to 
Mr.  Pitkin  as  well  as  to  me,  and  they  seemed  to 
talk  with  him  as  freely  as  to  me.  The  meeting 
which  more  than  any  other  one  aroused  in  the 
girls  this  personal  interest,  was  a  life-work  meet- 
ing on  the  lake-front  in  the  twilight — my  most 
precious  memory  picture  of  Mr.  Pitkin  is  of  that 
meeting,  at  which  he  made  the  concluding  ad- 
dress and  appeal.  I  had  not  seen  anything  of 
him  for  several  hours,  for  he  had  not  appeared 
at  the  supper-table.  1  knew  he  was  outside  the 
camp,  somewhere  in  the  quiet  woods,  praying 
about  his  message.  He  came  seriously  to  the 
meeting  with  bowed  head  and  sat  by  a  tree  on 


Among  the  Colleges  of  the  West    125 

the  outskirts  of  the  company.     When  his  turn 
came,  he  rose  with  that  majesty  which  conscious- 
ness of  a  God-given  message  inspires  one  with, 
and  spoke  out.     It  was  an  appeal  to  those  who 
knew  not  God;  an  appeal  to  those  who  knew 
him  to  make  Him  known,  even  to  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth.    How  many  hearts  that  appeal 
reached,  none  of  us  know.    The  sower  had  sown 
the  seed,  and  the  exquisite  parable  of  Jesus  is 
evermore  true.     Before  the  Conference   closed, 
Mr.  Pitkin  was  obliged  to  leave.     I  felt  the  work 
heavier  when  his  work  was  withdrawn.     1  had 
promised  to  write  him  fully  about  the  closing 
days  of  the  Geneva  Conference,  and  he  was  to 
write  me  about  the   missionary  department  of 
the   Eastern    College   Women's    Conference    at 
Northfield,  which  he  had  consented  to  conduct. 
When   his  letter  came,  it  was  triumphant.     He 
wrote  that  it  had  been  in  every  way  the  climax 
of  the  year's  work  which  he  had  been  doing. 
The  interest  in  missions  was  vivid  and  growing. 
Girls  who  had  never  thought  of  a  personal  duty 
to  the  non-Christian  people  of  the  world  were 
awakened  to  serious  thoughtfulness  about  it,  and 
by  thinking  of  it  were  brought  to  a  clearer  reali- 
zation of  the  spirit  of  obedience  which  Jesus  ex- 
pects of  His  disciples.     Mr.  Pitkin's  letter  did  not 
close  without  a  rhapsody  of  thanksgiving  that 
the  Conference  had  brought  to  himself  the  great- 
est personal  blessing  of  the  year." 

Regarding  the  Northfield  Conference  he  wrote 
to  Mr.  Bronson  that  the  twenty-one  volunteers  at 
the  beginning  grew  to  forty-three  before  the  end. 
A  graduate  of  Smith  College  who  was  present 
tells  of  his  remarkable  influence  at  this  Confer- 
ence: 


126  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

**The  Missionary  Institute  at  Northfield  in 
1895  was  my  first  experience  of  a  spiritual 
science — if  the  term  may  be  so  used.  The  com- 
bination of  practical  working  method  with  con- 
stant spiritual  fire  was  a  thing  astonishing  to  me. 
I  have  never  seen  it  equalled  in  any  religious 
training  class,  and  it  still  remains  my  ideal  of 
what  such  a  class  should  be.  Mr.  Pitkin's  open- 
ing prayer  seemed  to  set  the  tone  of  the  day. 
The  deep  sense  of  personal  responsibility  would 
have  been  almost  given  without  the  tenderness 
of  yearning  caught  from  the  Father.  Through- 
out the  list  of  suggestions  for  missionary  meet- 
ings, for  libraries,  for  study,  the  means  never 
obscured  the  end  in  view.  Almost  the  only  out- 
side speakers  that  year  in  the  institute  were  vol- 
unteers, giving  to  every  session  the  personal 
touch  of  a  fresh  consecration.  And  the  volun- 
teers grew  as  they  have  never  done  in  a  woman's 
conference,  before  or  since.  The  meetings  of 
the  Volunteer  Band  in  the  late  afternoons  are  as 
vivid  to  me  as  if  1  were  there  this  moment.  I 
was  not  a  volunteer :  Jesus  was  not  my  Master 
even  when  I  went  to  one.  I  sat  on  the  stairs 
outside  the  upper  floor  of  Stone  Hall  at  first  in  an 
uncomfortable  wonder  that  such  prayers  could 
really  be — and  then  in  an  increasing  awe  and 
yearning  to  understand  the  fellowship  which 
made  that  upper  room  a  holy  place.  Every  day 
more  came,  of  those  who  were  thinking  seri- 
ously, as  well  as  of  those  who  had  already  de- 
cided. No  one  was  urged  to  sign  the  card,  but 
every  moment  of  the  leader's  time  in  the  last  part 
of  the  conference  was  filled  with  personal  inter- 
views. They  were  often  held  of  necessity  in  a 
room  where  we  passed  through,  and  I  was  struck 
by  the  impersonality  of  Mr.  Pitkin's  attitude,  the 
thought  that  he  was  always  talking  to  God  about 
the  questions,  about  the  life  which  was  before 


Among  the  Colleges  of  the  West    127 

him.  The  result  was  that  girls  were  taught,  al- 
most unconsciously,  to  do  the  same  thing  for 
themselves,  to  go  before  God  alone  with  the 
question  of  life-service.  Through  the  summer 
and  the  fall  and  winter  the  question  was  quietly 
decided  by  many,  who  are  now  on  the  field,  or 
whose  lives  at  home  have  steadily  counted  since 
for  'the  least  of  His  brethren '  abroad.  The  last- 
ing impression  of  his  work  because  of  the  depth 
of  his  own  spiritual  life,  because  of  his  tremen- 
dous convictions  was  evident  from  the  beginning. 
The  intensity  of  his  purpose  was  in  every  line  of 
his  face  and  I  never  saw  it  relaxed  except  under 
the  influence  of  music,  and  in  greeting  to  older 
speakers  whom  he  admired  and  reverenced. 
Then  the  sweetness  was  as  evident  as  the  con- 
stant strength." 

While  he  was  working  for  others,  his  own  soul 
was  expanding.  This  year  was  a  year  of  strong 
and  steady  development  of  his  character  and 
spiritual  power.  In  a  letter  to  one  of  his  rela- 
tives, written  in  the  middle  of  the  year,  and 
replying  to  an  inquiry,  he  says: 

**  God  knows  1  have  pondered  over  the  words 
'  Baptized  with  the  baptism  '—Yes,  it  is  a  warn- 
ing come  in  time,  and  yet  I  believe  I  am  ready 
for  it,  though  there  must  come  much  before  the 
complete  victory  be  obtained.  But  the  past  only 
leads  me  to  trust  the  future.  To  look  at  my  life 
two  years  ago  and  then  at  it  now,  makes  me 
praise  God  all  day  long.  Still  what  illimitable 
heights  ahead!  " 

As  he  gave,  he  gained,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
summer  of  1895,  he  went  back  to  the  seminary 


1 28  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

for  his  final  year,  set  fast  in  great  qualities  which 
his  last  year  of  study  confirmed  and  solidified. 
Mr.  Eddy  testifies  as  to  some  of  these: 

**  He  exemplified  the  four  'alls'  of  Eph.  6:  17 
— all  prayer,  at  all  seasons,  in  all  perseverance, 
for  all.  He  was  already  learning  Paul's  secret  of 
doing  'everything  by  prayer.'  His  prayers 
were  always  beautiful.  He  came  directly  into 
the  very  presence  of  God.  He  took  God  seri- 
ously in  prayer.  There  was  a  simplicity,  a  direct- 
ness in  his  prayer  that  made  one  feel  that  he 
knew  God  and  knew  he  would  get  the  answer. 
There  was  too  a  tenderness  and  depth  of  affec- 
tion in  all  he  said,  that  showed  how  close  he 
lived  to  the  Father's  heart.  He  worked  hard,  but 
he  prayed  harder.  He  knew  where  the  power 
lay  and  that  it  was  not  in  him.  Great  as  was  his 
success  at  times  and  much  as  he  came  before 
large  audiences,  I  never  knew  him  by  a  word  or 
act  to  be  puffed  up.  He  was  always  humbly 
dependent  upon  God.  He  always  gave  Him  the 
glory,  when  the  work  was  done  for  he  knew 
who  had  done  it.  I  never  knew  him  to  lose  that 
intense  earnestness  and  strain  of  pathos  as  he 
pleaded  for  the  millions  that  were  a  burden  upon 
his  own  heart. 

"His  short  life  was  an  illustration  of  earnest 
consecration  and  single  devotion  to  one  great 
purpose.  When  God  called,  he  did  not  seek  to 
evade  that  call  like  foolish  Jonah  nor  like  another 
rich  young  man,  did  he  fail  God  when  his  life 
was  put  to  the  test.  Like  Timothy,  he  'cared 
truly'  for  the  estate  of  those  for  whom  Christ 
died.  Like  Paul,  he  was  ready  not  to  be  bound 
only  but  to  die  for  China,  for  he  loved  not  his 
life  even  unto  death,  and  like  Epaphroditus  hav- 
ing 'gambled'  (Greek)  with  his  life  to  supply 


Among  the  Colleges  of  the  West    1 29 

that  which  was  lacking  in  the  service  of  others; 
he  came  not  nigh  to  death  only,  but  laid  his  life 
down  for  Him  whom  having  not  seen  he  loved. 
"  When  the  news  came  of  his  message  for  his 
little  son — ^just  when  to  human  eye  all  looked 
dark  and  hopeless,  when  his  own  life  was  cut  off 
almost  before  he  had  begun  his  work,  when 
China  was  murdering  those  who  were  trying  to 
give  her  life — 1  saw  then  that  the  old  flame  for  mis- 
sions and  his  Master  had  not  died,  but  burned  to 
white  heat  to  the  last." 

Horace  knew  now  *'the  most  great  peace" 
of  which  Beha  was  so  fond  of  speaking  but 
whose  secret  the  Persian  lacked,  and  he  knew 
also  the  source  of  power.  Had  not  Jesus  on  the 
last,  the  great  day  of  the  Feast  of  the  Tabernacles 
stood  and  cried  saying,  *Mf  any  man  thirst  (for 
peace,  for  power)  let  him  come  unto  Me  "  ? 


V 

APPOINTMENT  BY  THE  AMERICAN  BOARD 

"  And  I  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord  saying,  Whom  shall  I 
send  and  who  will  go  for  us?     Then  I  said,   Here  am   I: 

send  me." — Isaiah  6:8. 

"  While  vast  continents  are  shrouded  in  almost  utter  dark- 
ness and  hundreds  of  millions  suffer  the  horrors  of  heathenism 
or  Islam  the  burden  of  proof  rests  on  you  to  show  that  the 
circumstances  in  which  God  has  placed  you  were  meant  by 
Him  to  keep  you  out  of  the  foreign  field," — Farewell  words  of 
Keith  Falconer  to  the  students  of  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow, 

"\  WELL  remember,"  says  Dr.  Palmer  of  Yale, 
''the  hour  in  which  he  put  his  hand  in  mine  at 
Worcester  in  1893  and  said,  '  This  day  has  de- 
cided me  to  give  myself  to  the  Board.'  "  He  had 
grown  up  in  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Philadelphia,  but  his  ancestral  relations  had  been 
with  the  Congregational  Church  and  he,  himself, 
had  been  more  directly  connected  with  the  Con- 
gregational Church  since  he  united  with  the  Phil- 
lips Church  in  Exeter  at  the  age  of  seventeen  in 
1886. 

The  application  to  the  Board  was  written  at 
New  Hartford  under  date  of  August  12th,  1894, 
as  follows: 

130 


Appointment  by  the  American  Board  131 

''  New  Hartford,  Conn. 

"August  1 2th,  1894. 
''To  the  Secretaries  of  the  Amercan  Board  of 
Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions,  Boston, 
Mass. 
"  Honored  Sirs: 

*'In  accordance  with  the  'Manual,'  I 
wish  to  make  application  for  foreign  missionary 
service  under  your  Board,  and  would  answer  the 
questions  and  suggestions  contained  in  that 
'Manual,'  as  follows: 

"I.     History  of  my  life: — 

"Being  born  in  Philadelphia,  Penna.,  Oct.  28, 
1869,  I  am  now  twenty-four  years  and  ten 
months  old.  My  father  was  the  son  of  Deacon 
Horace  Pitkin  of  Manchester,  Conn.  I  was  edu- 
cated in  Phila.  until  the  fall  of  1885,  when  I 
entered  Phillips  Academy,  Exeter,  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  graduating  there  I  took  the  Academic 
course  at  Yale,  where  I  was  graduated  in  1892. 
I  then  entered  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New 
York  City,  and  have  now  completed  two  years 
of  study  there. 

"2.    My  Religious  Experience: — 

"I  was  brought  up  under  Christian  influences, 
wherefore  there  was  no  sudden  change  at  the 
time  I  became  a  Christian  and  joined  the  Church 
(2d  Cong.  Exeter)  in  the  spring  of  1886.  This 
lack  of  apparent  change  was  partly  due  to  the 
fact  that  I  had  been  led  to  take  a  more  active 
course  in  the  Christian  Fraternity  in  the  school 
during  the  six  months  preceding  my  public  con- 
fession. Since  that  time  I  know  that  my  Chris- 
tian experience  has  been  growing  deeper  every 
year  and  that  my  desire  to  do  better  work  for  the 


132  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Master  has  constantly  increased.  Above  all  I 
have  had  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  in  power 
manifested  in  my  own  personal  life  and  in  the 
active  Christian  work. 

♦*3.     Health:— 

"  Though  I  was  not  in  very  good  health  as  a 
child  in  Philadelphia,  as  soon  as  1  attended  school 
in  the  country,  my  condition  was  greatly  im- 
proved and  ever  smce  that  time  I  have  enjoyed 
the  best  of  health.  1  am  sure  I  have  a  sound 
constitution. 

"4.     My  Christian  Work: — 

"  As  to  the  work  I  have  done  for  the  Master, 
I  can  only  say  that  1  have  endeavored  to  be 
actively  at  work  ever  since  my  conversion.  I 
had  the  delight  of  starting  a  Christian  Endeavor 
Society  in  the  church  at  Exeter,  and  afterwards 
of  working  actively  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  at  college. 
I  spent  six  weeks  in  mission  work  in  New  York 
City  one  summer,  and  for  two  winters  had  part 
charge  of  a  Rescue  Mission  in  New  Haven.  Also, 
1  was  teacher  and  superintendent  for  three  years 
and  a  half  in  a  mission  Sunday-school  at  New 
Haven.  During  my  study  in  Union,  beside  the 
work  for  foreign  missions,  I  have  devoted  odd 
times  to  the  work  in  the  hospital  wards  and  in 
Rescue  Missions. 

"  God  has  used  me  in  stirring  up  foreign 
mission  interest  in  the  Church  and  Endeavor 
Society  in  New  Hartford,  so  that  now  they  are 
supporting  in  part  a  Japanese  student  (I  believe) 
and  a  Syrian  student. 

"  But  since  my  sophomore  year  in  college  this 
work  has  been  secondary  to  that  of  stirring  up 
my  own  interest  and  that  of  others  in  foreign 


Appointment  by  the  American  Board   133 

missions.  As  a  member  of  the  Student  Volunteer 
Movement  for  Foreign  Missions  since  the  spring 
of  1889  I  have  been  definitely  expecting  and  plan- 
ning to  become  a  foreign  missionary  unless  the 
Lord  should  prevent.  Because  of  this  aim  I  have 
been  able  to  arouse  the  interests  of  many  other 
men  so  that  they  have  taken  the  same  step,  but 
more  to  teach  the  Young  People's  Societies  about 
the  great  work,  until  God  has  had  a  chance  to  put 
it  into  their  hearts  to  give  a  number  of  thousand 
dollars  for  the  work  of  His  kingdom  out  there. 
For  this  reason  I  have  been  asked  to  take  the 
position  of  travelling  secretary  of  the  Volunteer 
Movement  for  the  coming  year,  and  therefore  I 
shall  be  compelled  to  delay  my  seminary  course 
during  that  time  while  I  spend  it  in  visiting  the 
colleges  in  the  interests  of  the  movement. 

"  5.     My  Call  to  Foreign  Mission  Work: — 

*'The  reasons  for  my  decision  to  become  a 
foreign  missionary,  God  permitting,  are  hard  to 
state.  My  father  had  been  a  home  missionary 
for  some  years,  my  nearest  uncle,  Rev.  E.  R. 
Beadle,  had  been  a  missionary  to  the  Druses,  and 
I  had  always  heard  much  of  foreign  and  home 
missions  until  there  was  a  vague  impression 
formed  on  my  mind  that  some  day  I  should  be  a 
missionary.  It  was  through  the  influence  of  facts 
brought  before  me  at  the  Northfield  Summer 
School,  in  1889,  that  I  could  see  no  reason  why 
I  should  not  turn  my  head  and  heart  towards 
foreign  missionary  work,  with  a  purpose  to  do 
that  work  unless  the  Lord  prevented.  I  do  not 
thirik,llTat__at  that  time  I  fully  comprehenSed  tne 
meaning  oi  tne  wulk  as  a  lipe  wurtc  t'  liad-^ 
-vagu^lnotion  ot  ai;ew_xeari;  Of  sefVl^e,  ptjlliap's 
withj_little  romance  conn'ected  with  IT,  'AUd  llieti 
ai  return  to  an  active  pastorate  in  this  country. 


134  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Not  until  after  some  eight  montlis  was  the  con- 
viction forced  upon  me  as  to  what  the  foreign 
service  really  meant.  From  that  time  on  I  have 
tried  to  inform  myself  in  regard  to  the  work  and 
to  help  others  over  the  hard  places. 

"  From  that  indefinite  idea  of  the  character  of 
missionary  service  and  the  very  indefinite  call 
received  at  Northfield  (with  the  way  blocked  in 
all  human  probability  through  the  age  of  my 
father  and  the  sickness  of  my  sister)  by  the  end 
of  my  college  course  I  found  that  God  has  been 
opening  the  way  for  me  by  taking  both  the 
father  and  the  sister  to  Himself.  My  study  had 
shown  me  the  true  depth  and  glorious  possi- 
bilities of  the  missionary  service,  and  I  knew 
perfectly  that  God  wanted  me  to  work  for  Him 
in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  There  has 
been  no  call  from  the  clouds,  but  the  facts  of  my 
life  and  the  result  of  study  inspired  by,  and  carried 
on  under  God  have  been  a  sure  and  certain  call 
to  His  work  in  the  waste  places. 

*'6.    M^.  Finance: — 

"  I  am  profoundly  thankful  to  God  that  He  has 
given  me  so  much  of  this  world's  goods  that  I 
am  able  to  offer  myself  to  the  Board  as  a  self- 
supporting  worker.  My  plan  now  is  to  try  To 
persuade  a  chttfch  or  party  of  churches  to  sup- 
port me  through  the  Board,  and  then  I  shall  give 
to  the  Board  for  general  work  a  sum  equal  to  my 
support.  In  this  way  a  church  or  set  of  churches 
will  have  a  living  link  in  the  Field  while  I  can 
give  money  to  the  Board  for  forms  of  work 
which  are  necessary,  but  not  interesting  for  the 
majority  of  the  churches  to  support.  But  this 
plan  is  only  a  plan,  though  God  permitting,  1 
shall  be  able  to  go  free  of  all  charge  to  the  Board 
in  any  case. 


Appointment  by  the  American  Board   135 

"  7.     Reasons  for  Entering  the  Ministry:— 
''  I  entered  the  ministry  after  carefully  weigh- 
ing the  matter  in  the  light  of  the  work  to  be  done 
in  the  foreign  field.     For  a  year  or  two  the  ques- 
tion between  it  and  medicine  was  an  open  one, 
but  I   decided  to  take  up  the  theological  pro- 
fession in  view  of  the  talents  God  had  given  me 
for  ministerial  and  pastoral  work,  and  because  of 
the  greater  need  for  that  form  of  work  in  the 
foreign  field— greater  not  so  much  in  the  way 
of  immediate   results  as  in  the  way  of  laying 
a  foundation  which  must  be  laid  in  any  mission 
field  if  any  other  form  of  work  is  to  survive. 
The  ordained  missionary  seems  to  me  to  have 
the  more  intimate  connection  with  the  evangel- 
istic and  educational  work— these  are  primary, 
not  secondary,  duties  for  him. 

"  In  view  of  this  I  am  preparing  to  go  out  as  an 
ordained  missionary  to  preach  Christ  and  Him 
crucified,  with  as  little  as  possible  of  what  I  think 
about  Him  and  with  as  much  as  possible  of  what 
the  Word  of  God  says  concerning  His  life  and 
work. 

"  8.     Preference  for  Field  :— 

"  I  have  all  along  been  drawn  to  work  in  the 
Northern  Mission  in  China. 

*«  First:— Because  of  the  need  for  workers  there 
and  the  glorious  possibilities  in  the  work  there 

-Second:— Along  with  the  study  of  the  dif- 
ferent fields  has  the  conviction  come  that  1  should 
avoid  a  tropic  chmate.  Experiment  here  has 
shown  that  I  am  not  able  to  stand  a  hot  climate 
or  hot  weather  long  continued.  If  Africa  were 
incomparably  worse  off  for  workers  than  China 
this  question  would  be  of  little  importance  for 
as  a  matter  of  fact  we  have  little  chance  for  trial 
of  conditions  here,  but  inasmuch  as  I  realize  the 


136  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

vast  importance  of  the  work  in  China,  and  the 
immense  need  of  workers  there,  1  must  prefer 
to  work  in  that  country.  I  want  to  go  just 
where  the  Master  can  use"  me  best.  So  far  I  have 
not  had  light  otherwise  than  I  have  stated.  Per- 
haps in  the  future,  circumstances  will  lead  me  to 
alter  my  opinion.  I  have  consulted  Rev.  H.  P. 
Beach  of  Springfield  on  the  subject  and  he  ad- 
vised an  early  application  to  the  Board,  in  order 
that  if  it  seemed  at  all  best,  proper  measures 
might  be  taken  to  insure  the  gratification  of  this 
preference.  I  trust  that  you,  sirs,  will  not  mis- 
understand me  when  I  say  frankly  that  as  this 
conviction  has  been  laid  so  strongly  on  me  that 
from  my  present  view-point  (God  only  knows 
what  the  future  will  bring  forth)  I  might  be 
compelled  to  decline  a  designation,  should  it  be 
impossible  at  the  time  of  my  departure  for  you 
to  grant  me  under  your  Board  work  in  this  field. 
At  the  same  time  1  know  that  you  will  under- 
stand that  I  do  not  wish  in  any  way  to  use  my 
peculiarly  fortunate  position,  in  having  my  own 
support,  to  influence  your  choice  of  the  neediest 
field  for  my  work.  To  feel  that  you  thought  that 
I  felt  that  money  would  influence  your  decision 
in  regard  to  my  future  work  and  that  I  might 
have  my  preferences  regarded  simply  because  I 
was  able  to  go  self-supporting  while  another  can- 
didate less  fortunate  might  be  compelled  contrary 
to  his  preferences  to  accept  any  field  that  was 
offered — this  would  be  unbearable.  I  hope 
the  frankness  you  ask  for  in  the  'Manual' 
will  be  accepted  in  the  spirit  it  is  given.  How- 
ever, an  understanding  at  this  time  will  save  pos- 
sible difficulties. 

''However,  I  shall  not  be  ready  to  be  desig- 
nated for  two  years  and  in  that  time  conditions 
rnay  be  changed.  Of  course  in  case  of  declina- 
tion of  designation,  1  should  seek  to  go  out  under 


Appointment  by  the  American  Board   137 

the  Presbyterian  or  some  other  Board,  until  I  was 
led  to  see  that  the  Lord  of  the  Harvest  wishes 
me  to  work  in  some  other  part  of  the  Foreign 
Field. 

"  9.    My  Early  Application : — 

"My  reasons  for  early  application  therefore 
are,  first,  to  aid  the  Board  in  granting  this  pref- 
erence (of  course  I  mean  the  probability  now  of 
its  being  granted  then)  and  second,  for  the  in- 
fluence the  fact  of  an  appointment  will  have  on 
my  work  in  the  coming  year.  To  go  before  the 
College  men  and  Church  members  in  the  position 
of  one  so  far  along  as  to  have  been  accepted  by 
the  American  Board  will  undoubtedly  give  weight 
to  my  words,  and  I  believe  that  we  are  justified 
in  using  every  proper  means  to  break  up  the 
prejudices  of  men  that  the  Word  of  the  Lord  may 
nave  full  course  to  the  end  that  they  may  recog- 
nize the  imperative  claims  on  them  of  the  Foreign 
work. 

(Signed)  "Horace  Tracy  Pitkin." 

After  writing  this  letter,  he  went  off  to  the 
Adirondacks  but  he  was  back  in  New  Hartford 
in  September  and  on  the  eighteenth  he  wrote  to 
Dr.  Daniels,  "  I  send  you  the  statement  of  Faith 
that  you  desired.  In  this  last,  I  have  tried  to  be 
frank  in  order  that  we  may  understand  each 
other  at  the  outset."     This  was  his  statement: 

'*  I  believe  in  the  Trinity — Father,  Son  and  Holy 
Spirit. 

"  I  believe  in  one  God,  maker  of  Heaven  and 
Earth,  our  Father,  who  so  loved  the  world  that 
He  sent  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  to  live  and  die  for  it. 

"1  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  only  begotten 


1 38  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Son  of  the  Father,  of  the  substance  of  the  Father 
yet  a  distinct  person  ;  that  He  took  on  human 
form  and  came  into  the  world,  lived  a  life  like 
ours,  tempted  in  all  points  as  we  yet  without 
sin,  died,  rose  and  ascended  into  Heaven  where 
He  ever  lives  with  the  Father;  that  He  lived  to 
proclaim  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  to  teach  us  by 
word  and  example  as  contained  in  the  Gospels 
how  to  live  in  that  Kingdom,  and  that  He  died, 
made  to  be  sin,  that  full  atonement  might  forever 
be  made  for  the  sins  of  those  who  believe  on 
His  Name;  that  now  with  the  Father  He  ever 
makes  intercession  on  behalf  of  His  believing 
ones,  and  that  He  sends  the  Holy  Spirit  to  those 
who  ask  Him. 

"  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  He  is  a  per- 
son, that  His  presence  is  made  possible  by  the 
death  of  Jesus  Christ;  that  He  is  the  Convincer  of 
Sin,  the  Advocate,  the  Revealer  of  the  Father,  the 
Interpreter  of  Christ's  life  and  words,  and  the 
Teacher  of  all  things;  that  thus  He  is  the  Sancti- 
fier  of  the  soul  and  that  through  Him  all  our  work 
is  to  be  performed. 

"I  believe  that  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  are  a  progressive  revelation  of 
the  Father  culminating  in  the  revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ;  that  they  were  written  by  men  peculiarly 
under  the  influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit;  that  they 
are  the  sufficient  and  only  infallible  rule  of  faith 
and  practice,  and  that  they  are  the  means  of  mak- 
ing wise  unto  salvation. 

"  I  believe  that  all  men  are  sinners  and  that  the 
wages  of  sin  is  death ;  that  our  Father  *  not  wish- 
ing that  any  man  should  perish'  has  provided  a 
way  of  escape  by  sending  Jesus  Christ  into  the 
world  to  redeem ^the  world;  that  this  redemption 
is,  first,  regeneration  and  justification,  and  then 
growth  in  sanctification  through  communion 
with  the  Father  through  prayer, "through  fellow- 


Appointment  by  the  American  Board  139 

ship  with  the  Son  and  through  the  Spirit's  aiding 
us  to  follow  the  example  and  teaching  of  Jesus 
Christ-thus  to  eternal  life;  that  thus  this 
redemption  is  a  gift  from  God  and  is  made  pos- 
sible to  all  men,  the  worst  and  the  best,  through 
their  belief  in  Jesus  Christ. 

-  However  there  have  been,  are   and  will  be, 
very  many  who  having  never  heard  of  or  had  an 
intelligent  conception  of  Jesus  Christ  are  neve - 
tK  striving  to  find  God  according    o  their 
best  light.     I  cannot  but  have  a  reasonable  hope 
that  he  great  love  of  the  Father  will  at  sometime 
and  som^ehow  guide  these,  souls  to  their    ong- 
wished-for  goaL     The  Scriptures  seem  to  me  to 
teach  nothing  definite  on  the  subject.     But  ^h  si 
leave  with  God.     Meanwhile  I  know   that  the 
Kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  become  the  King- 
doms of  His  Christ;  I   have  the  command  of 
Christ  to  Goto  work  for  this  end;  there  are  the 
gigantic   mountains  of  sin  and  suffering  to  De 
lurmounted-all    this    is  enough   for   me     and 
'hope'  or  '  no  hope,'  my  Saviour  has  been  too 
much  to  me  for  me  to  hesitate  to  take  Him  to  the 
open  sores  of  the  world  that  I  may  help  Him  to 
be  the  healing  of  the  nations.  . 

*'I  believe  in  the  resurrection  of  the  spiritual 
body;  that  God  and  His  Christ  will  come  to 
judge  the  world,  with  issues  of  eternal  life  and 
eternal  death." 

In  reply  to  other  questions  asked  by  the  Board 

he  wrote:  . 

♦M  believe  the  Doctrines  as  set  forth  in  the 

Creed  of  1883. 

-I  know  that  I  am  a  Christian  because  my 
whole  life  has  been  changed  and  day  by  day  I 
love  less  the  things  that  the  Father  would  not 


140  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

have  me  love,  while  I  love  more  and  more  the 
things  that  are  well  pleasing  to  Him. 

"The  Holy  Spirit  has  worked  in  and  through 
me  so  that  I  cannot  doubt  but  that  I  am  a  child  of 
God. 

*'  I  am  trying  to  help  myself  by  picking  up  a 
little  medical  knowledge.  A  very  helpful  series 
of  quizzes  with  two  doctors  for  three  weeks  with 
the  practical  work  in  the  hospital  and  dispensary 
during  and  for  some  time  after,  has  given  me  a 
basis  on  which  to  acquire  constantly  more  knowl- 
edge of  how  to  take  care  of  myself  and  others, 
in  emergencies  where  a  doctor  is  not  at  hand." 

As  to  his  motive  for  desiring  to  be  a  missionary, 
he  replied: 

'*  As  the  Father  hath  sent  me  into  the  world, 
so  1  send  you  into  the  world,  '  For  I  am  persuaded 
that  nothing  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from 
the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,* 
and  that  love  is  the  love  that  constrains  me.  For 
preparation  1  am  trying  to  live  closer  to  Him  day 
by  day.  It  will  be  my  life  work,  God  will- 
ing." 

He  stated  he  had  been  accustomed  to  study 
eight  hours  a  day  or,  with  recitations,  eleven  or 
twelve.  As  to  his  habits  of  exercise,  he  answered : 
"  During  winter-work,  running  one-half  to  one 
mile  with  ordinary  •  body  setting  up '  exercise 
seems  to  suit  me  best — an  hour  a  day."  "1  am 
learning  day  by  day,  I  think,"  he  said,  "to  bear 
responsibilities  calmly  and  cheerfully." 

The  Board  of  course  sought  testimonials  from 


Appointment  by  the  American  Board   141 

those  who   knew  him.      His   cousin,   the   Rev. 
Heber  H.  Beadle  wrote: 

"He  meets  the  requirements  as  nearly  as  any 
one  I  know.  I  know  of  no  disquahfication  in 
his  case." 

The  Rev.  George  E.  Street,  of  Exeter,  said: 

"He  was  a  happy,  consistent  member  during 
all  his  course  at  school,  helped  organize  the 
Society  of  Christian  Endeavor,  kept  Christian  boys 
in  the  Academy  up  to  their  duties  in  their  own 
religious  organization,  the  Christian  Fraternity, 
and  after  going  to  Yale,  where  he  stood  high  in 
rank  as  a  scholar,  he  retained  his  interest  in  the 
church  and  its  institutions,  usually  coming  to  us 
every  year  to  encourage  young  Christians  in  their 
work,  and  later  on  when  the  missionary  spirit 
had  seized  him,  to  impart  his  enthusiasm  in  that 
great  cause  to  us  all. 

"Of  all  the  precious  young  men  who  have 
been  under  our  church  care  here,  I  can  think  of 
none  who  has  been  among  us  a  more  beautiful 
and  helpful  presence." 

Dean  Wright  of  Yale  replied: 

"In  body,  mind  and  character  he  is  a  strong 
man.  His  intellectual  qualifications  are  of  a  high 
order  and  his  work  in  college  excellent.  He  did 
a  great  amount  of  Christian  work  while  a  college 
student  and  I  once  allowed  him  a  two  weeks' 
leave  of  absence  as  a  delegate  on  national  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  business,  because  Mr.  Morse  assured  me 
he  could  not  find  elsewhere  so  good  a  represent- 
ative. When  he  graduated,  he  had  many  calls 
to  Christian  work  in  different  lines,  and  I  felt  that 


142  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

his  success  was  sure  in  any  of  them.  His  only 
thought  was  to  select  the  career  in  which  he  could 
work  for  Christ. 

"He  has  enthusiasm,  perseverance,  independ- 
ence combined  with  respect  for  authority,  capac- 
ity to  organize  and  direct,  and  is  a  ready  and  ef- 
fective speaker.  In  my  opinion,  he  is  admirably 
qualified  for  the  foreign  missionary  service,  and 
I  only  regret  that  if  he  goes  to  a  foreign  field, 
his  service  will  be  lost  to  his  own  country." 

On  behalf  of  the  faculty  of  Union  Seminary, 
President  Hastings  said: 

"  He  is  a  decidedly  superior  man  in  every  way 
and  stands  high  in  all  departments.  I  am  de- 
lighted that  he  is  going  to  the  foreign  field, 
though  he  is  the  kind  of  man  we  need  at  home. 

"In  gentlemanly  habits,  in  Christian  zeal,  in 
scholarly  attainments  and  in  oratorical  ability, 
Mr.  Pitkin  ranks  high  in  his  class. 

"I  congratulate  you  that  you  can  secure  such 
a  young  man  for  the  great  work." 

The  Rev.  Harlan  P.  Beach  with  exceptional  op- 
portunities to  know  him,  wrote  with  discrimina- 
tion and  earnestness: 


"If  ever  a  man  trusted  in  God  and  was  thor- 
oughly consecrated  to  the  work  of  missions,  Pit- 
kin is.  The  zeal  of  the  Lord  has  eaten  him  up 
in  the  matter  of  extending  His  Gospel  to  the 
heathen  nations.  Missions  is  the  atmosphere  in 
which  he  walks  and  which  is  his  vital  air. 

"I  know  of  only  three  or  four  men  who  are 
such  men  of  prayer  as  he  is.     Nothing  is  at- 


Appointment  by  the  American  Board  143 

tempted  without  prayer  and  I  have  never  slept  in 
a  room  which  is  more  of  a  Bethel  than  his  room 
in  Union  Seminary. 

**I  am  quite  sure  that  he  could  work  harmoni- 
ously with  others,  though  if  stationed  with  men 
who  are  inclined  to  be  lazy  and  not  thoroughly 
interested  in  mission  work,  I  fear  he  would  chafe 
much.  There  is  danger  that  one  who  has  made 
such  a  thorough  study  of  missions  and  who 
really  knows  more  by  far  of  the  broad  work  of 
missions  than  most  men  on  the  field,  would  hold 
strong  views  as  to  the  possibilities  of  the  service; 
yet  he  probably  would  not  do  more  than  make  a 
strong  appeal  for  progress  and  then  if  opposed, 
pray  the  matter  through. 

"Few  men  have  clung  so  persistently  to  his 
purpose  as  Pitkin.  Nothing  less  than  a  voice 
from  heaven  could  turn  him  aside  from  his  desire 
to  preach  the  Gospel  to  perishing  heathen. 

"  He  is  a  man  of  some  versatility.  His  knowl- 
edge is  broad  and  he  has  a  taste  for  invention  as 
his  room,  rigged  with  various  electrical  appliances 
devised  by  himself,  shows.  If  he  has  not  changed 
his  plan,  he  is  studying  elements  of  medicine 
this  summer,  that  he  may  be  provided  against 
the  time  when  his  station  physician  leaves  his 
place  and  some  one  is  needed  to  help  out  in  an 
emergency.  Practical  things  needed  on  the  field 
he  has  eyes  open  to  also,  so  that  aside  from  a 
theoretical  fitness  for  the  field,  he  has  superadded 
these  more  prosaic  matters. 

"  Pitkin  is  in  receipt  of  an  income  of  $3,000  a 
year  or  was  when  he  last  talked  with  me  about 
it.  That  money  is  the  Lord's  and  will  be  used 
mainly  for  the  mission,  at  least  that  is  the  con- 
clusion which  he  reached  after  a  long  consulta- 
tion with  me  a  year  since.  He  would  thus  not 
only  be  self-supporting,  but  pay  a  large  portion 
of  the  expense  of  the  work.     He  would  probably 


144  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

continue  to  support  the  work  abroad  which  is  al- 
ready in  his  heart." 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  Board  rejoiced  to 
appoint  such  a  candidate  and  he  was  accepted  on 
Jan.  29,  1895,  and  assigned  to  the  North  China 
Mission.  He  attended  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
Board  in  Madison,  Wis.,  in  October,  1894,  and  the 
following  year,  he  made  a  notable  short  address 
at  the  meeting  in  Brooklyn  in  October,  which 
made  a  deep  impression  but  was  not  reported. 
A  wise  country  minister  in  Connecticut  recalls  his 
impression  of  this  meeting  and  his  recollection  of 
the  strong  young  life,  which  he  watched  and 
studied: 


*' September  15,  1895,  I  preached  in  New  Hart- 
ford in  exchange  with  the  pastor.  Immediately 
after  service,  I  was  expected  to  go  to  the  minis- 
ter's rooms  and  meet  his  wife  who  would  take 
me  to  the  hotel  to  dinner.  She  said  to  me,  '  Mr. 
Pitkin  played  the  organ  this  morning.'  I  think 
some  of  my  people  had  spoken  his  name  to  me 
before  as  if  he  was  some  one  I  would  know  well 
and  1  (as  1  sometimes  do)  waited  for  information 
to  come  in  due  course  instead  of  asking  who  and 
what  is  he  ?  So  as  the  pastor's  wife  said,  *Mr. 
Pitkin,'  it  was  something  of  a  blank  to  me.  She 
told  me  farther  that  Mr.'Pitkin  was  to  take  charge 
of  an  outdoor  meeting  that  her  husband  had  been 
conducting  through  the  summer  at  Stubb  or 
Maple  Hollow  (at  least  Pitkin  was  to  speak  of 
foreign  missions).  The  meeting  was  on  my 
road  home  and  1  went  and  then  first  met  Pitkin. 
He  spoke  on  foreign  missions.     He  had  some  il- 


Appointment  by  the  American  Board   145 

lustrative  material,  such  as  is  so  often  used  so 
cheaply  as  to  make  one  feel  '  That  is  cheap  trash.' 
It  was  not  so  with  him ;  he  did  not  use  it  to  show 
how  much  he  knew  and  as  if  it  were  all  he  knew 
or  nearly  so.  His  mind  was  saturated  with  in- 
formation and  his  heart  was  full  of  intense  feel- 
ing on  missions  and  he  wanted  to  make  his 
hearers  see  and  feel. 

"The  next  time  I  remember  seeing  him  was 
at  the  meeting  of  the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.  in  Brooklyn, 
that  same  fall. 

**  The  Board  gave  an  invitation  to  the  C.  E. 
societies  to  be  present  in  a  body,  giving  them  the 
centre  of  the  hall  and  sending  the  ministers  to 
the   platform.     Dr.    Dunning  of  the   Congrega- 
tionalist  made  an  address;  I  am  not  sure  who 
else  spoke,  but  Pitkin  was  one  speaker.     It  was, 
of  course,  not  the  easiest  place  for  a  young  man 
but  Pitkin  did  not  seem  to  be  awed  by  the  oc- 
casion.    It  was  to  him  an  opportunity  to  plead 
for  the  cause  he  loved  and  he  did  it  in  a  frank 
and  manly  way.     My  verdict  was  *  He  has  scored 
another  success.'     A  few  weeks  (perhaps  only  a 
week  or  two  after  this)  the  Conn.  C.  E.  Union 
met  at  Middletown.     I  was  visiting  my  father  at 
Ivoryton  (in  the  town  of  Essex)  and  went  up 
just  for  the  day.     The  president  announced  that 
he   had   desired   to   have   a   missionary   impulse 
given  to  the  meeting  and  looking  around  and  in- 
quiring,   he   was   told   that  if    he   could   secure 
'Chaplain'   (now  Bishop)  McCabe,  he  could  be 
sure  of  accomplishing  his  purpose.     The  Chap- 
Iain  spoke.     Then  he  said  that  at  the  meetmg  m 
Brooklyn  of  the  A.  B.  C.  P.  M.  he  had  heard  Pitkm 
and  had  secured  him  and  introduced  him.     Again 
he  was  master  of  the  occasion.     He  was  the  hero 
of  the  missionary  hour.     It   happened   that  his 
train  for  New  York  and  mine  for  Saybrook  left 
at  about  the  same  time  and  we  had  a  few  min- 


146  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

utes'  conversation.  I  was  again  impressed  with 
the  charm  of  the  man.  I  am  not  easy  to  get 
acquainted  with;  I  am  not  (1  think)  considered 
social,  but  it  was  a  privilege. 

*'  He  was  natural  and  1  half  think  that  many  of 
the  people  took  him  as  a  matter  of  course  with- 
out thinking  how  he  impressed  them  or  asking 
how  good  or  great  he  was." 

To  go  out  with  Horace,  the  Board  appointed 
on  May  12,  1896,  Miss  Letitia  E.  Thomas  of  Troy, 
Ohio,  who  was  a  graduate  of  Mount  Holyoke 
and  had  been  at  the  Young  Women's  Conference 
at  Northfield,  in  July,  1895,  where  she  and  Horace 
met.  They  became  engaged  that  winter.  He 
communicated  this  happy  intelligence  to  Mr. 
Bronson  in  this  characteristic  note: 

"  Dear  Oliver:  It's  all  broke  out  in  the  semi- 
nary. Not  the  smallpox — oh,  no,  my  son — but 
the  fact  that  I  am  engaged  to  Miss  L.  E.  Thomas 
of  Troy,  Ohio.  Ml  tell  you  all  about  her  when  I 
see  you — but  let  this  cheer  your  heart  and  make 
you  well  quick.     See! 

"  In  the  seventh  heaven, 

**  Horace." 

They  were  married  October  6,  1896,  Miss 
Thomas  having  spent  the  preceding  year,  while 
Pitkin  was  concluding  his  course  in  Union,  at  the 
Woman's  Medical  College  in  Philadelphia, 

The  day  after  the  wedding,  they  went  to 
Toledo  to  attend  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
American  Board  and  in  the  evening  of  October 


Appointment  by  the  American  Board   147 

8th,  went  on  to  Cleveland  for  his  ordination 
which  took  place  in  Pilgrim  Church  on  October 
9th.  The  Moderator  was  the  Rev.  H.  M.  Tenney, 
D.  D.,  of  Oberlin;  the  Rev.  James  Brand,  D.  D., 
of  Oberlin,  preached  the  sermon.  The  Rev.  Jud- 
son  Smith,  D.  D.,  offered  the  ordaining  prayer; 
the  Rev.  Albert  H.  Plumb,  D.  D.,  gave  a  mis- 
sionary charge  to  Mr.  Pitkin  and  the  Rev.  H.  A. 
Schauffler,  D.  D.,  to  the  people,  while  Mr.  Beach 
made  an  address  on  '*  The  Right  Hand  of  Fellow- 
ship.'' 

The  relationship  of  Pilgrim  Church  to  Mr.  Pit- 
kin's ordination  was  not  accidental.  How  the 
relationship  between  Pitkin  and  the  Church  be- 
gan is  indicated  in  the  following  letter  which  he 
wrote  to  the  pastor,  the  Rev.  Charles  S.  Mills, 
from  Union  Seminary,  May  6,  1896: 

**  It  may  seem  somewhat  strange  to  you  to  re- 
ceive a  letter  from  me.     .     .     .     The  American 
Board  has  appointed  me  to  go  to  North  Chma  this 
coming  fall.     ...     I   am    just  finishing  my 
course  in  Union  Seminary  this  city  and  after  some 
work  this  summer  shall  expect  to  sail  about  Oc- 
tober or  November.     .     .     .    Now  to  the  point. 
The  Lord  has  given  me  enough  money  to  sup- 
port myself  through  the  Board  on  the  field.     But 
I  have  no  living  church  back  of  me  as  I  go,  and 
on  the  other  side,  no  body  of  people  are  to  be 
particularly  influenced  through  my  being  on  the 
field      It  has  been  the  conviction  in  my  heart  for 
years  that  no  one  ought  to  go  to  the  foreign  lands 
without  leaving  a  society  back  of  him  which 


148  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

should  be  deeply  interested  in  his  work.  But  this 
interest  can  only  come  in  the  fullest  measure 
when  that  society  is  helping  in  a  very  direct  way 
to  support  the  said  man.  His  interest  in  them 
also  is  deepened  largely  from  the  fact  that  they 
are  supporting  him.  Since  my  visit  to  your 
church  last  spring,  the  thought  has  often  come  to 
my  mind,  would  it  not  be  possible  for  your  so- 
ciety to  have  such  an  interest  in  my  work  and  in 
me.  My  thought  is  simply  this:  Whatever 
would  be  my  regular  salary  would  be  paid  by  the 
church  here  to  the  Board  for  me  and  I  in  turn 
would  give  to  the  Board  a  similar  amount  for  the 
other  expenses  of  the  Board  which  are  just  as 
necessary  as  salaries,  yet  which  do  not  appeal  to 
the  church  as  much  as  the  support  of  workers 
does.  In  that  way  I  have  a  living  link  at  home 
and  the  church  has  its  representative  on  the 
field.  But  of  course,  this  will  mean  giving  an 
extra  amount  to  accomplish  this. 

"  Perhaps  the  thought  of  this  was  started  in  my 
mind  from  some  remarks  made  by  some  of  the 
members  of  your  Young  People's  Society  at  the 
time  of  their  banquet  which  I  attended.  These 
were  to  the  effect  that  they  hoped  they  might 
have  a  share  in  supporting  me.  If  this  spirit  could 
be  carried  into  the  church,  I  have  no  doubt  but  that 
the  work  could  be  done.  In  my  work  among 
the  C.  E.  Societies  and  churches,  I  have  become 
convinced  of  the  value  of  the  representative  on 
the  foreign  field.  At  the  same  time,  I  have  seen 
where  those  representatives  have  made   grave 


Appointment  by  the  American  Board   149 

mistakes  in  the  correspondence  conducted  with 
the  church  supporting  them.  This  education 
may  not  come  amiss  in  the  coming  time. 

"I  think  that  you  see  my  point.  I  dislike 
writing  such  a  letter  ...  it  would  be  ten- 
fold easier  for  me  to  go  out  and  support  myself 
and  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  churches  at 
home.  But  the  work  of  a  missionary  it  seems 
to  me  is  twofold  ...  he  has  a  duty  to  those 
with  whom  he  works  and  a  duty  to  the  con- 
stituency at  home  and  if  he  has  no  such  con- 
stituency it  is  only  pleasing  to  the  Master  that  he 
can  get  one  as  soon  as  possible.  It  may  be, 
Mr.  Mills,  that  you  cannot  see  your  way  clear  to 
entertaining  the  thought,  for  your  church,  of  car- 
rying my  whole  probable  salary  .  .  .  say 
seven  hundred  dollars,  yet  you  may  see  the  way 
open  to  accepting  part  of  it,  at  least  a  half,  we 
might  say.  It  might  be  possible  for  me  to  get 
some  other  church  to  take  the  other  half.  To 
you  I  have  made  the  first  appeal.  With  the 
Board  in  the  financial  straits  in  which  it  finds 
itself  and  with  this  scheme  of  relieving  along 
lines  which  are  only  to  the  advantage  of  both 
parties  in  the  highest  degree,  1  ask  you  to  con- 
sider the  question  very  seriously.  I  know  that 
you  will  all  understand  me  when  I  say  that  1  be- 
lieve that  my  education,  my  experience  in  the 
work  among  the  colleges  and  churches — if  you 
wish,  my  wife  from  the  state  of  Ohio — these 
may  appeal  to  your  church  for  the  sought-for 
funds. 


150  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

"  .  .  .  Please  write  me  frankly.  .  .  . 
I  shall  understand.  In  the  meantime,  I  shall  pray 
that  you  may  be  guided  into  the  will  of  the 
Master." 

This  letter  led  to  an  arrangement  by  which 
the  Pilgrim  Church  was  to  support,  through  the 
American  Board,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pitkin  as  its  mis- 
sionary representatives  in  China.  The  Church 
was  to  provide  Mr.  Pitkin's  salary  through  the 
Board,  and  the  Women's  Missionary  Association 
Mrs.  Pitkin's  through  the  Woman's  Board,  Pitkin 
giving  from  his  own  funds,  the  amount  of  their 
salary  to  the  Board  in  lieu  of  supporting  himself 
as  he  would  have  done  if  this  arrangement  had 
not  been  made  with  the  Church.  The  farewell 
meetings  in  the  Church  were  held  on  October  24, 
1896.  Pitkin  wrote  of  these  to  Dr.  Smith  on 
October  29th: 

"It  will  rejoice  you  to  know  of  the  very  mani- 
fest presence  of  the  Spirit  in  our  meeting  with 
Pilgrim  Church  Friday-Sunday.  Mrs.  Pitkin  and 
I  managed  to  address  or  sing  to  almost  every  de- 
partment of  the  Church's  more  strictly  religious 
organizations.  .  .  .  The  Sunday  services, 
closing  with  a  small  farewell  meeting  in  a  side 
room  of  those  in  the  Church  most  deeply  inter- 
ested followed  by  the  communion  service,  were 
mightily  used  towards  our  being  welded  together 
into  one  common  interest  and  sympathy.  It  is  a 
matter  of  profoundest  joy  as  I  recall  the  depth  and 
richness  of  spiritual  power  in  those  meetings." 

The  Calendar  of  the  Pilgrim  Church  for  No- 
vember 1st  spoke  with  great  enthusiasm: 


Appointment  by  the  American  Board   1 5 1 

"  Days  OF  Blessings.    No  pen  can  depict  the 
wonderful  experiences  connected  with  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Pitkin's  visit  a  week  ago.     We  can  only 
lift  our  hearts  to  God  in  gratitude  for  the  mar- 
vellous  outpouring  of   His   grace   upon  us  and 
upon  those  who  go  out  as  our  messengers  and 
His  servants.     That  the  whole  plan  of  our  con- 
nection with  them  is  of  divine  design,  that  already 
we  have  reaped  from  it  a  glorious  harvest  of 
spiritual  strength,  and  that  it  will  bring  untold 
blessings  to  us  all  in  future  days,  we  all  most 
heartily  and  gratefully  believe,  and  we  pray  that 
we  may  be  prepared  to  receive  and  employ  the 
grace  of  God  which  is  so  abundantly  given  in 
response  to  our  prayers  and  gifts." 

In  his  memorial  sermon  of  November,  1900, 
Dr.  Mills  referred  to  this  ''day  of  blessing": 
"Was  there  ever  a  day  that  meant  more ?  How 
deep  the  emotion  at  the  farewell  service,  yet  how 
little  we  knew  that  we  would  see  his  face  no 
more!  How  the  song  Mrs.  Pitkin  sang  at  that 
Friday  service  thrilled  us  all! 

" «  The  Homeland  !     O  the  Homeland !     The  land  of  the  free- 
born  !  ,      r  J   1 

There's  no  night  in  the  Homeland,  but  aye  the  fadeless  morn ; 
I'm  sighing  for  the  Homeland,  my  heart  is  aching  here  ; 
There  is  no  pain  in  the  Homeland,  to  which  I'm  drawmg 
near. 

« '  My  Lord  is  in  the  Homeland,  with  angels  bright  and  fair : 
There's  no  sin  in  the  Homeland,  and  no  temptation  there ; 
The  music  of  the  Homeland  is  ringing  in  my  ears ;  ^ 

And  when  I  think  of  the  Homeland,  my  eyes  are  filled  with 
tears ; 

«* « My  loved  ones  in  the  Homeland  are  waiting  me  to  come, 
While  neither  death  nor  sorrow  invades  their  holy  home ; 
O,  dear,  dear  native  Country  !  O  rest  and  peace  above !     ^  ^^ 
Christ  bring  us  all  to  the  Homeland,  of  Thy  redeeming  love. 


VI 

THE  JOURNEY  TO  CHINA 

I  know  not  what  the  future  hath 

Of  marvel  or  surprise, 
Assured  alone  that  life  and  death 

His  mercy  underlies. 

I  know  not  where  His  islands  lift 

Their  fronded  palms  in  air; 
I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 

Beyond  His  love  and  care. 

— Whittier. 

The  new  missionaries  sailed  from  New  York 
on  November  ii,  1896,  on  the  5/.  Paul,  among 
their  most  congenial  fellow-passengers  being  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Jacob  Chamberlain  of  India.  They  had 
a  quiet  passage  with  seven  hours  of  fog  and 
seventy  steamer  letters  and  reached  London  No- 
vember 1 8th.  They  kept  a  journal  of  this  trip, 
as  they  expected  to  be  six  months  on  the  way, 
visiting  Europe  and  Palestine,  and  the  missions 
in  Egypt  and  India,  and  Pitkin  wrote  back  letters 
to  friends  and  to  the  Pilgrim  Church  and  to  the 
Board.  Much  that  they  saw  is  what  all  such  trav- 
ellers of  earnest  purpose  and  intelligent  insight  see, 
but  it  will  be  well  to  quote  some  extracts  from 
his  journal  and  letters  to  set  forth  his  general 
course  and  his  judgments  thereon,  and  to  illus- 
trate the  character  that  was  nearer  its  crown  than 
it  dreamed. 

152 


The  Journey  to  China  153 

They  saw  the  Abbey  and  St.  Paul's,  of  course. 
Pitkin  wrote  to  the  Pilgrim  Church  from  London 
in  his  letter  of  November  24th,  addressed  to 
"  Dear  Fellow-Pilgrims  at  Home": 

*'  Two  places  in  that  wonderful  Cathedral  held 
our  attention  longest.      One  was  m  front  of  a 
simple  white  marble  slab  set  m  the  wall  of  one 
of  the  aisles.      The  upper  part  was  carved  with 
faces  of  full  strength  and   purity.     The   lower 
part  showed  in  relief  a  man  addressing  an  au- 
dience from  a  platform.     Two  of  three  inscrip- 
tions on  the  stone  I  remember-they  were,     The 
world  is  my  parish '  and  '  God  buries  His  work- 
men, but  carries  on  His  work.'    Can  you  guess 
the  names  of  such  men  ?-men  who  have  been 
thought  worthy  of  a  place  among  men  of  world- 
fame  ^      Every   one  has   heard   of   Charles   and 
John  Wesley.     And  of  them,  it  is  recorded   in 
imperishable  marble,  '  The  world  is  my  parish 
O   God  grant  that  many   a   Pilgrim   may  count 
it 'a  thing  most  well-pleasing  to  God  to   con- 
tinually say  (and  act  in  accordance  with  the  say- 
ing) 'The  world  is  my  parish   too.'     We  have 
started  well— may  we  run  so  as  to  attain! 

"The  other  place  was  before  a  brass  slab  let 
into  the  floor  of  the  nave.  It  recited  in  a  few 
words  that  here  rested  the  body  of  one  carried 
from  the  centre  of  Africa,  missionary,  explorer, 
philanthropist,  who  in  his  last  words,  penned  in 
his  diary,  breathed  a  blessing  on  any  one  who 
would  lift  a  finger  to  help  in  healing  the  open 
sore  of  the  world— do  you  know  him  ?— buried 
with  all  the  honor  that  Britain  could  give— a  man 
who  following  the  Wesleys,  took  his  parish  to  be 
the  world-David  Livingstone,  it  was.  Cannot 
some  one  read  his  Life  and  learn  of  the  life  which 


154  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

so  beautifully  represented  that  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  on  earth  ? 

"Many  other  things  have  claimed  our  atten- 
tion. The  *  Tower '  which  has  been  fortress, 
palace  and  prison  in  turn  since  the  time  of  Wil- 
liam the  Conqueror — my!  nearly  850  years  ago. 
The  wonderful  British  Museum  with  the  cases 
packed  with  all  the  old  relics  of  the  world.  Think 
of  seeing  clay  tablets  written  on  in  the  time  of 
King  Hezekiah  and  before  him;  or  stones  carved 
in  Pharaoh's  time  and  even  hundreds  of  years 
before  that! 

"Then  there  was  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  with 
monuments  to  noted  men.  Every  Pilgrim  boy 
ought  to  be  fired  with  a  desire  to  emulate  Gen- 
eral Gordon  who  only  served  his  Master,  when 
it  is  inscribed  on  his  magnificent  tomb,  '  To 
Major-General  Charles  Gordon  .  .  .  who  at 
all  times  and  everywhere  gave  his  strength  to 
the  weak,  his  substance  to  the  poor,  his  sym- 
pathy to  the  suffering,  his  heart  to  God.'  Who 
will  follow  that—'  Heart  to  God'  ?  " 


On  this  Sunday  in  London,  they  heard  two 
sermons;  one  in  the  morning  in  Christ  Church 
from  the  Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer  on  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  one  in  the  afternoon  at  St.  Paul's  on  the 
awakening  of  Great  Britain  to  the  fact  that  she  is 
disliked,  the  congregations  differing  as  greatly  as 
the  themes. 

From  London,  they  went  to  Paris  for  a  week. 
Of  the  McAll  Mission  he  wrote  to  the  Pilgrim 
Church: 

"...  More  and  more  these  salons  are  be- 
coming the  outlet  for  the  missionary  activity  de- 


The  Journey  to  China  155 

veloped  in  the  young  people  of  the  regular  Prot- 
estant Churches  of  the  city.  So  the  McAIl 
Mission  accomplishes  the  twofold  object  of 
saving  and  of  helping  others  to  save.  Note 
tv/o  facts  and  see  the  need  of  work  in  France 
and  Paris — of  40,000,000  people,  the  Catholic 
Church  claims  less  than  3,000,000  as  actual 
adherents.  The  large  portion  of  the  remainder 
are  nothing  in  religion.  Why  in  Italy,  of  the 
30,000,000  people,  less  than  10,000,000  can  be 
counted  as  real  members  or  adherents  of  the 
Catholic  Church.  On  the  blanks  of  application 
for  Associate  membership  in  the  little  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
in  Rome,  in  the  space  opposite  *  Religion,'  the 
last  three  applicants,  though  nominal  Catholics 
had  marked  'zero' — they  had  no  religion.  But 
another  fact — Paris  is  divided  into  twenty  dis- 
tricts. Each  district  has  a  public  library.  In  at 
least  ten  of  these  libraries  there  is  not  a  Bible  to 
be  found.  Think  of  it!  No  wonder  one  of  the 
clerks  in  one  of  these  institutions  reported  to  an 
inquirer  for  a  Bible  that  the  book  was  out  of 
print!  At  the  largest  salon.  The  Philadelphia,  I 
saw  a  most  respectable  audience  gather  for 
Church  service.  Then  we  went  to  the  slums, 
where  Mr.  Grieg,  President  of  the  McAll  Mission, 
has  his  Sunday-school.  Those  bright-eyed  boys 
and  girls  in  a  low  room  back  through  a  narrow 
alley — boys  and  girls  who  could  sing  with  a  will 
(they  must  have  to  patch  the  roof  often)  and 
most  wonderful  of  all — boys  and  girls  who  could 
answer  the  questions  like  a  flash — questions  put 
just  as  fast  to  them  by  Mr.  Grieg.  *  This  is  the 
strong  point  in  French  children,'  he  told  me. 
Why  shouldn't  it  be  with  United  States  of 
America  children  too  ? 

**  After  the  service,  we  went  to  the  church 
building  of  the  salon  and  took  supper  with  some 
twenty  of  the  young  workers,  girls  and  boys 


156  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

from  the  shops  and  factories,  who  used  to  be 
helped  in  the  Sunday-school  and  now  are  the 
helpers.  Then  came  church  service,  where  I  had 
an  opportunity  of  saying  a  few  words  through 
Mr.  Cluett  as  interpreter.  Over  each  pulpit  in  the 
salons  is  written  *  We  preach  Christ  crucified  ' — 
so  that  was  my  text  for  them.  For  musical 
instruments,  they  had  the  organ,  violins,  'cello, 
and  two  mandolins.  Every  one  joined  in  right 
heartily  as  they  sang  the  Gospel  Hymns  in 
French.  At  nine  o'clock  came  the  Christian  En- 
deavor meeting.  There  was  consecration  meet- 
ing. They  gathered — about  twenty-five — in  an 
upper  room  and  held  a  meeting  just  like  ours  at 
home.  The  roll  was  called,  each  one  answering 
with  a  text.  Then  an  opportunity  was  given 
to  say  what  this  one  or  that  one  hoped  to  do 
the  coming  month.  One  said  '  Help  trim  the 
Christmas  Tree  ' — another  '  speak  to  the  girls  at 
my  counter' — these  represent  the  types — com- 
bining the  practical  and  spiritual  lend-a-hand 
with  material  and  spiritual  bread.  Then  came 
the  Scripture  discussion  with  a  good  deal  of 
animation.  Finally,  kneeling,  all  prayed,  in  the 
midst  arose  the  hymn,  '  Shall  We  Gather  at  the 
River,'  which  I  recognized  from  the  dear  old 
tune.  At  last  came  '  More  holiness  give  me,' 
and  we  arose  from  our  knees  to  go  out  thanking 
God  for  that  saint  Adam  McAll,  who  was  sent  of 
Him  from  Scotland  to  inaugurate  this  marvellous 
work.  I  wish  that  all  might  see  what  I  did  of  it. 
No  doubt  but  that  Cleveland  would  lend  even  a 
mightier  helping  hand  in  this  warfare. 

"  One  peculiar  thing  we  notice  on  the  tombs 
of  departed  heroes  and  saints  in  the  Catholic 
Churches  and  that  is  the  sentence  *  Orate  nobis ' 
— '  Pray  for  us' — that  is  for  the  dead.  But  we 
take  it,  your  fellow-pilgrims,  and  for  us  living,  we 
ask  it  of  you  '  Orate  nobis  ! '  *  Orate  nobis  / ' " 


The  Journey  to  China  157 

The  travelers  went  from  Paris  to  Milan,  Venice, 
Florence,  Rome,  Naples  and  Pompeii  and  thence 
from  Brindisi  to  Greece.  Of  December  22d,  in 
Athens,  Horace  writes  in  the  Journal: 

**In  the  evening  after  writing  the  Journal, 
about  nine  o'clock,  we  drove  to  the  Acropolis  in 
the  moonlight.  The  carriage  left  us  (1  had  a 
revolver  in  my  pocket)  and  the  guard  let  us  in 
after  examination  of  our  permesso.  Clouds 
were  in  the  sky  but  the  alternate  shadow  and 
brightness  only  increased  the  beauty.  We 
moved  to  all  different  points  and  finally  at  10:30 
turned  regretfully  homeward.  Walked  back  in 
the  moonlight  (two  days  after  full  moon)  and 
reached  the  hotel  by  11:15.     Glorious  day  1 " 

From  Athens,  he  wrote  to  his  "Fellow- 
Pilgrims  "  in  Cleveland: 

"  Six  weeks  day  after  to-morrow  since  we  left 
New  York, — and  how  much  has  been  packed 
into  those  weeks.  Many  a  time  has  the  wish  of 
the  farewell  telegram  you  sent  us  been  fulfilled 
in  these  days.  Amidst  all  the  change  of  scene, — 
with  the  thousand  dangers  around  us,  within 
and  without — 'The  Lord  be  gracious  unto  thee 
and  give  thee  peace' has  been  our  constant  ex- 
perience. We  are  sure  you  will  all  ask  of  Him  to 
make  it  even  more  an  abiding  reality  to  us  as  we 
near  the  more  definite  mission  fields  where  so 
much  lies  to  be  seen  and  understood.  This  is 
for  us,  but  will  you  not  add  to  it  the  prayer  that 
we  may  with  the  reception  of  such  blessing  be 
the  givers  of  even  greater  blessing  to  those 
whom  we  touch  in  the  many  places  of  our 
journey  ?" 


158  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

On  December  29th,  he  and  Mrs.  Pitkin  touched 
at  Beirut  and  went  on  the  next  day  to  Jaffa  on 
the  way  to  Jerusalem.  Their  letter  to  the 
Church,  descriptive  of  the  Jerusalem  visit,  was 
written  from  Benares  on  April  7th: 

"Tuesday  night  we  went  aboard  a  small 
steamer  for  Jaffa  (Yaflfa,  the  old  Joppa)  the  port 
for  Jerusalem.  A  storm  came  up  and  in  the 
morning,  we  anchored  a  mile  off  Jaffa,  wonder- 
ing if  the  boats  from  shore  would  dare  come  out 
to  us.  Fortunately,  they  ventured  and  a  boat 
came  tossing  on  the  huge  waves.  As  it  was 
made  fast  to  our  ship,  one  wave  carried  it  down 
level  with  our  keel  and  another  up  almost  even 
with  the  deck,  while  the  boatman  skillfully 
fended  off  and  helped  us  along  the  steps  which 
were  hung  on  the  side  of  the  ship.  It  was 
rather  dangerous.  There  sat  Mrs.  Pitkin  on  the 
lowest  step  with  the  boat  far  below  her.  On  a 
wave  the  boat  rose,  two  men  seized  her  by  the 
arms  and  simply  threw  her  into  the  boat,  where 
she  was  caught  by  the  boatmen.  I  was  treated 
in  the  same  way,  luggage  followed  and  the  boat 
shoved  off.  The  nine  rowers  bent  to  their  oars, 
keeping  time  to  an  antiphonal  chant  between 
them  and  the  head  rower  praying  to  Allah  for 
help.  Jaffa  is  a  little,  frightfully  dirty  place,  so 
we  took  the  first  train  for  Jerusalem,  fifty  miles 
away.  It  seemed  odd  to  see  a  railroad,  but  this 
has  been  running  only  a  few  years,  managed  by 
a  French  company.  The  locomotives  are  two 
that  were  used  between  Chicago  and  the  World's 
Fair. 

"Now  came  a  week  of  sight-seeing  that  made 
the  Bible  in  its  references  to  Jerusalem  and  vicin- 
ity seem  very  real  to  us.     One  day  was  spent  in 


The  Journey  to  China  159 

the  city.  We  saw  the  Ecce  Homo  arch  with  the 
adjoining  pavement  and  the  two  stones  between 
which  Pilate  sat.  We  followed  the  Via  Dolorosa, 
the  traditional  path  which  Jesus  took  to  the  cross. 
Along  it,  the  Catholics  have  indicated  stations 
where  He  rested.  But,  of  course,  this  street  is  at 
least  fifty  feet  above  the  original  street  as  rubbish 
has  filled  in  the  valley.  So  we  passed  to  the  most 
remarkable  building  in  Jerusalem,  founded  by 
Queen  Helena  in  the  fourth  century — the  Church 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  It  is  a  low  stone  build- 
ing, covering  about  half  an  acre  and  containing 
thirty-seven  stations  at  which  something  con- 
nected with  the  crucifixion  is  said  to  have  taken 
place.  These  the  Greeks,  Latins  and  Copts  own, 
sometimes  commonly,  sometimes  separately. 
You  enter  the  door — in  front  of  you  is  the  slab  on 
which  Christ  was  laid  after  the  Descent.  This, 
all  three  of  the  sects  own.  To  the  left,  is  an  iron 
cage,  indicating  where  Mary,  the  mother  stood. 
To  the  right,  up  several  steps  the  cross  was  placed 
and  the  hole  leads  down  into  a  cave  where  they 
show  you  the  grave  of  Adam,  so  arranged  that 
the  cross  must  have  rested  on  his  skull.  Thus 
they  typify  the  washing  out  of  sin.  Around  the 
sides  of  the  church  are  rock-hewn  caves.  As  we 
pass  through  them,  we  see  here  the  tombs  of 
Joseph  and  Nicodemus;  here  the  spot  where 
Christ  appeared  to  Mary;  here  the  column  to 
which  He  was  bound;  here  the  place  where  they 
cast  lots;  here  where  they  crowned  Him;  and  in 
a  large  cave,  the  spot  where  Helena  found  the 
three  crosses;  the  true  one  of  which  was  proven 
by  its  power  to  raise  the  dead.  In  the  Greek 
chapel  at  one  side  of  the  church,  we  were  shown 
the  stone,  which  marks  the  centre  of  the  earth. 
From  under  this  came  the  dust  of  which  Adam 
was  formed.  In  the  centre  of  the  building  is  the 
sepulchre;  a  small  chapel  of  two  rooms,  one  con- 


l6o  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

taining  a  piece  of  the  stone  which  closed  the 
tomb,  the  other  the  tomb  itself.  To  see  all  this 
mass  of  superstition  and  tradition;  to  know  that 
only  Turkish  soldiers  keep  the  three  sects  from 
murdering  each  other,  in  their  fanaticism;  to  hear 
of  the  scenes  of  riot  and  even  of  death,  when  on 
Easter  Day  the  mob  crowds  in  to  light  their  can- 
dles from  the  holy  fire  that  priest-craft  makes  to 
blaze  from  the  tomb;  all  this  makes  one's  heart 
sick  within  him. 

"Another  day  we  spent  in  compassing  the 
walls.  We  saw  the  so-called  'tomb  outside  the 
walls,'  but  one  must  confess  that  it  has  a  remark- 
able air  of  truthfulness.  The  hill  near  by,  the 
Jews  call  Golgotha  and  mock  and  spit  at  it  to  this 
day.  The  tomb  is  an  unfinished  one  as  we  would 
expect.  The  groove,  where  a  mighty  stone  must 
have  rolled,  is  plainly  visible.  Few  tombs  have 
windows,  but  this  one  has  an  aperture,  corre- 
sponding to  the  Gospel  narration.  Having  passed 
the  place  of  the  stoning  of  Stephen,  we  crossed 
the  Brook  Kedron  and  ascended  the  Mount  of 
Olives.  Buildings  have  been  erected  on  spots 
where  Christ  is  said  to  have  ascended  (the  Latins 
say  one,  the  Greeks  another),  where  they  say  He 
taught  His  disciples  to  pray,  and  where  the  tra- 
ditional tombs  of  Joseph  and  Mary  are.  A  small 
garden  is  shown  as  the  site  of  the  Garden  of 
Gethsemane.  But  in  spite  of  these  traditional  ex- 
cresences,  when  once  on  the  Mount,  we  could 
imagine  ourselves  back  in  the  scenes  of  1,900 
years  ago.  The  surrounding  mountains  and  val- 
leys, the  far-off  Dead  Sea,  with  Pisgah  beyond  all, 
lay  just  as  they  did  when  our  Master  walked  here. 

**  The  site  of  the  temple  on  Mount  Moriah  was 
most  interesting.  No  Christian  is  allowed  in  the 
precincts  unless  with  a  pass  and  special  Turkish 
guard.  The  beautiful  mosque  of  Omar,  whose 
foundation  Mohammed  is  said  to  have  laid,  stands 


The  Journey  to  China  i6l 

over  the  summit  of  the  Mount,  which  the  devout 
Moslem  believes  even  now  to  be  suspended  in  the 
air,  having  started  to  follow  Mohammed  to 
heaven,  but  stopped  by  Gabriel,  whose  handprint 
is  shown  to  prove  the  story. 

"  On  the  side  of  the  enclosure,  facing  the  Mount 
of  Olives,  is  the  Beautiful  Gate.  Until  recently,  a 
Turkish  guard  was  kept  there  day  and  night  and 
this  for  600  years,  because  an  old  prophecy  stated 
that  the  Christians  would  one  day  recapture  the 
temple  through  that  gate.  We  know  that  Chris- 
tianity will  win  some  day,  but  not  by  the  sword 
but  by  His  spirit  working  in  the  hearts  of  men. 

**  Our  trip  of  a  day  and  a  half  to  the  Jordan  was 
charming.  Starting  wrapped  in  thick  rugs,  we 
gradually  shed  them  as  we  descended  the  3,900 
feet  to'  modern  Jericho  in  the  Jordan  plain. 
Three  miles  away,  a  few  sand  mounds  probably 
mark  ancient  Jericho.  The  road  is  wild  and  the 
scenery  beautiful.  Troops  of  wandering  Bedouins 
make  it  dangerous,  but  we  had  an  escort  to  guard 
us.  One  poor  traveller  whom  we  passed,  with- 
out an  escort,  was  robbed  an  hour  later.  At  this 
season,  the  plain  of  the  Jordan  is  sticky  mud. 
Our  horses  and  mule  struggled  bravely  and  the 
three  miles  to  the  Jordan  were  covered.  As  we 
saw  it— a  very  muddy  and  uninviting  stream 
about  tlfty  yards  wide,  flowing  deep  and  swift. 
We  tried  to  follow  it  to  the  Dead  Sea,  but  on  ac- 
count of  the  mud,  were  unable  to  go  and  had  to 
give  it  up. 

"  Another  day  was  spent  in  driving  to  Hebron 
and  back,  forty-eight  miles  in  all.  The  mountains 
rocky  and  bare  now,  but  soon  to  be  smothered  m 
tlowers.  The  valleys  plowed  or  just  turnmg 
green,  peasants  and  shepherds  with  their  flocks, 
all  presented  scenes  of  unparalleled  interest. 

"Tuesday  was  the  Greek  Christmas  Eve  and 
on  that  day  the  patriarch  entered  Bethlehem  in 


l62  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

state.  The  square  in  front  of  the  little  Church  of 
the  Nativity,  the  oldest  Christian  church  extant, 
was  thronged  with  the  gaily  dressed  worship- 
pers. Under  the  altar  of  the  church  is  a  rock- 
hewn  cave  where  worshippers  kneel  at  the  place 
of  Christ's  birth,  at  the  place  where  the  cradle 
stood  and  at  the  place  where  came  the  annuncia- 
tion to  Joseph.  We  attended  one  service,  but 
could  not  stop  for  the  midnight  service,  when  the 
patriarch  marches  through  the  streets  and  three 
times  around  the  church,  bearing  an  image  of  the 
Christ-child  in  his  arms.  Hundreds  of  pilgrims 
come  to  this  celebration. 

"Of  mission  work,  we  saw  little  as  our  time 
was  so  short.  The  main  effort  is  directed  towards 
Jews,  Catholics  and  Armenians.  Even  societies 
started  for  Mohammedans  have  turned  to  this 
work  for  the  moment,  realizing  that  until  after 
the  Turkish  power  is  broken,  and  the  nominal 
Christians  show  a  more  evangelical  spirit,  there  is 
little  to  be  expected  from  the  Mohammedans. 

''Jerusalem  is  the  most  filthy  city  we  have  vis- 
ited, and  the  Jew  quarter  is  the  worst  of  all.  The 
narrow  streets  with  all  the  offal  from  butcher  and 
grocery  shops  as  well  as  from  the  houses  thrown 
into  them,  and  with  the  mangy  dogs  prowling 
around,  are  simply  indescribable. 

"  Thus  ended  our  week  in  Jerusalem.  Wednes- 
day evening,  January  6,  1897,  we  were  once  more 
on  the  sea  bound  for  Port  Said." 

The  Egyptian  section  of  the  Journal  is  enter- 
tainingly written,  but  it  is  descriptive  of  the 
country  rather  than  of  Pitkin's  character.  Of 
Sunday,  January  17th,  he  writes  at  Assiout: 

"  This  morning  at  nine,  part  of  the  crowd  went 
off  on  an  excursion  to  be  gone  till  noon.     Mrs. 


The  Journey  to  China  163 

W.  and  Mrs.  M.,  also  Miss  V.,  and  we-uns 
started  for  the  American  Mission  service.  After 
a  fairly  long  walk,  we  entered  the  courtyard 
of  the  mission,  went  up  some  stairs,  knocked, 
were  answered  by  a  nicely-dressed  girl,  daughter 
of  the  head  missionary,  who  showed  us  into  the 
church.  It  was  filled  with  young  men  and  Herr 
Missionary  was  preaching  in  Arabic,  so  we  didn't 
linger  but  walked  up  into  the  town  and  back  to 
the  boat.  This  afternoon,  we  spent  in  Bible  study 
and  this  evening  we  tried  a  few  songs,  but  too 
many  people  are  around,  so  it  is  unpleasant.  The 
boat  has  been  going  all  afternoon,  and  if  every- 
thing keeps  up,  we  shall  sail  on  all  of  to-morrow 
and  hope  to  reach  Denderah  Tuesday  noon.  Mrs. 
W.  suggested  I  give  a  service  on  deck  this  after- 
noon or  evening,  but  we  have  kept  out  of  the 
way — for  what  reason  ? — 1  don't  know ! — only  we 
don't  want  to." 

At  Keneh,  he  says: 

"  We  mounted  and  rode  up  a  long  avenue  to 
the  town,  quite  a  fine  place,  to  all  the  pottery 
works.  But  lo,  we  ran  into  the  celebration  of 
the  birthday  of  an  Arab  saint.  Such  a  crowd  in 
the  market-place!  Camels  in  rich  trappings  with 
rugs! — oh,  oh!  Just  one  for  our  floor  in  China, 
please!  Then  other  camels  had  big-covered 
houses  on  their  backs,  concealing  clothes,  etc., 
of  the  deceased.  A  brass  band  was  blowing, 
cannon  were  firing  and  a  big  crowd  at  one  side 
was  watching  races.  We  managed  to  get  up 
close  and  saw  the  finest  Arab  riders  come  dashing 
down  the  line  and  rein  up  instanter,  almost  throw- 
ing their  horses,  whose  mouths  were  red  with 
blood.  Altogether  it  was  a  most  interesting 
sight." 


164  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

On  January  28lh  they  sailed  for  Ismailia  on  the 
P.  &  O.  boat  Arcadia,  and  began  to  get  insight 
into  the  ways  of  life  on  the  English  ships  in  the 
East.     These  are  extracts  from  the  Journal: 

'*  .  .  .  The  vessel  is  sailing  free,  so  we 
don't  get  much  wind.  They  are  busy  with  all 
sorts  of  games  on  the  Port  Deck,  which  is  the 
cooler  of  the  two.  Bean-bags,  which  consist 
of  two  crews  passing  five  bags  on  a  round  trip 
through  five  players,  and  having  victory  depend 
on  the  speed  of  the  trip,  seem  most  exciting. 
Then  'Shuffle-board,'  'Rings,'  etc.,  all  form  a 
constant  fund  of  amusement.  We  sit  and  watch 
as  we  are  too  weary  to  enter  into  the  exercise. 
They  have  asked  us  to  do  so  at  a  shilling  apiece, 
but  we  are  novices  while  they  have  been  working 
since  Brindisi.  No,  sirree!  But  we  get  a  back- 
gammon board  and  are  in  the  midst  of  that  harm- 
less game. 

"Oh,  Sunday  after  dinner,  while  playing  the 
piano  during  second  dinner,  the  purser  sent  up 
and  asked  me  to  cease.  The  reason  1  know  not. 
Sufficient  was  the  sour.  A  Japanese  nurse  is  on 
board.  Nice  happy  little  woman  with  a  big  bow 
for  a  bustle.  There  are  four  Chinese  too,  all  in 
one  saloon  cabin.  The  English  you  can  watch  all 
day  with  never-ending  amusement.  The  best 
joke  was  this  evening,  when  a  gentleman  at  the 

table  with  Mrs.  F asked  her  if  those  young 

couples  were  not  very  lonely  and  felt  it  badly 
that  the  English  would  not  speak  to  them.  He 
said  that  it  was  always  so.  For  instance,  as  for 
himself,  he  was  an  editor,  a  mercantile  pursuit, 
and  so  the  three  English  at  his  table  would  never 
speak  to  him.  He  must  have  been  very  self-de- 
preciative.  As  for  us,  we  were  quite  content  to 
be    by    ourselves.      The    only   thing  that   does 


The  Journey  to  China  165 

trouble  us  is  whether  we  have  done  all  we  could 
for  those  about  us  by  this  line  of  conduct.  The 
captain,  Loggin,  is  an  earnest  Christian,  much  in- 
terested in  Moody." 

They  landed  at  Colombo  on  February  7th.  The 
journal  says: 

*' Headache  and  mean  feeling,  so  we  rested  till 
four  o'clock,  when  I  discovered  I  had  left  my 
New  Testament  on  the  steamer.  She  was  due  to 
start  at  six,  so  I  got  a  rickshaw  and  went  out  to 
her  in  one  of  the  catamarans,  a  curious  boat  made 
of  a  long  log  on  which  two  planks  are  nailed  to 
form  sides.  Then  to  keep  it  upright,  two  bent 
poles  are  lashed  to  the  top  sides  and  extend  some 
ten  feet  to  a  smaller  log  sharpened  and  bent  up  at 
each  end,  to  which  they  are  lashed  again.  Two 
men  row  on  the  side  away  from  the  poles  and  to 
counteract  the  side  motion,  the  steersman  rows 
across  the  boat,  so  keeping  her  straight.  There 
is  room  for  two  passengers  facing  each  other. 
It  was  a  novel  experience  and  the  sea  was  de- 
cidedly rough.  I  found  the  book  in  the  stateroom 
and  came  up  to  look  around.  Everything  was 
black  with  coal-dust.  The  purser  told  me  it 
takes  three  washings  really  to  get  things  clean 
once  more.  This  is  one  of  the  disagreeable  fea- 
tures of  a  six  weeks'  trip,  necessitating  two  coal- 
ings on  the  way.  By  six  o'clock,  I  was  back  and 
the  trip  had  cost  100  cents  (Ceylon) — a  rupee,  or 
thirty-two  cents  in  our  money.     Cheap!" 

It  was  rather  late  in  the  cool  season  to  visit 
India  and  it  soon  grew  very  hot.  On  March 
6th,  Pitkin  writes  in  the  journal  of  the  ride  to 
Sholapur: 


l66  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

"To-day  has  been  the  most  trying  in  our 
whole  trip.  No  one  warned  us  of  the  heat. 
We  had  no  water  except  in  a  small  bottle.  The 
soda  at  stations  is  tasteless.  The  heat  was  ter- 
rific and  the  dust  awful.  I  was  afraid  Letty 
would  collapse.  We  couldn't  stand  the  breeze 
through  the  windows,  it  was  like  a  furnace 
heat.  We  had  to  wear  our  topis  for  fear  of  the 
sun  through  the  roof.  But  all  bad  things  come 
to  an  end,  and  after  the  ride  through  the  desert 
— for  everything  seemed  a  barren  waste — Mr. 
Edw.  Fairbank  met  us  at  the  station  with  his 
little  girl  and  we  were  soon  in  the  tonga,  driving 
home.  Everything  is  dried  up  here  and  not  a 
breath  of  wind  stirring.  It  is  hot,  there's  no 
doubt  of  it.  Mrs.  Fairbank  gave  us  a  warm  wel- 
come and  we  had  a  little  nap  before  dinner. 
Beds  looked  too  good  to  be  resisted  and  we  were 
soon  in  them." 

The  good  sense  of  his  observations  of  the  work 
is  illustrated  by  his  account  of  the  Sunday  spent 
at  Sholapur: 

"The  night  has  been  warm,  but  still  we  slept, 
and  at  9  a.  m.  we  went  off  to  the  little  Eurasian 
service  for  the  railroad  people,  that  is  nominally 
under  the  Government  Chaplain,  but  the  mission- 
aries take  it  for  half  the  year.  I  took  the  service 
entirely  and  preached,  which  was  very  pleasant  as 
the  audience  filled  the  building  and  were  very  at- 
tentive. We  were  introduced  to  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Harding,  the  oldest  missionaries  in  the  Marathi 
Mission.  They  seem  like  delightful  people.  He 
is  a  large  man  with  long  beard,  quiet,  deep  voice 
and  a  man  of  executive  ability.  He  is  very  fond 
of  music  and  has  put  many  of  the  lyrics  to 
music.     We   came   home   and   were   about  the 


The  Journey  to  China  167 

house  till  five  o'clock,  when  the  evening  service 
came  at  the  mission  church.  In  place  of  the 
preacher,  a  Brahmin  doctor  in  town  preached. 
He  is  said  to  be  a  great  help  to  them,  as  he  has 
influence  and  money.  The  service  was  not  as 
orderly  as  the  services  down  south.  The  boys  of 
the  school  were  restless;  the  women  did  not 
respond  to  the  service  and  there  was  much  going 
out  and  coming  in.  One  good  thing  was  the 
number  of  Hindus  who  stood  in  the  doorways 
and  listened.  As  the  church  is  right  in  the  city, 
while  the  mission  compound  is  without  the  walls, 
it  makes  the  service  able  to  reach  a  larger  num- 
ber of  Hindus.  In  other  missions  they  have 
spoken  of  the  difficulty  resulting  from  a  church 
too  secluded  in  a  mission  compound.  This  even- 
ing, Mr.  F.  had  the  boys  of  his  school  on  the 
porch  and  with  Mrs.  F.'at  the  organ  and  baby 
Adelaide  between  them  in  a  high  chair,  they  sang 
hymns  and  lyrics,  and  then  the  boys  divided  into 
two  groups,  those  who  had  listened  to  the  ser- 
mon and  those  who  had  not.  Then  followed 
questions  on  the  sermon  and  the  meeting  was 
closed  with  prayer.  He  is  touching  these  boys 
very  closely.  Hardly  a  boy  leaves  his  school  un- 
converted. To  the  Hindus,  to  send  a  boy  to 
school  means  his  conversion.  In  the  evening. 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Harding  came  over,  and  we  had  a 
charming  talk.  Mrs.  Harding  was  a  Mount 
Holyoke  girl.  Dr.  Harding  has  had  a  very  inter- 
esting experience  with  a  community  which  of 
itself  became  Christians,  and  one  of  his  helpers 
went  out  to  baptize  them.  They  were  perfectly 
independent,  but  by  and  by,  their  boys  going  to 
school  learned  what  the  mission  was  doing  for 
others;  at  mission  meeting,  delegates  had  their 
eyes  opened,  and  they  asked  for  teachers  sup- 
ported by  the  mission.  Dr.  H.  partially  yielded; 
now  he  is  sorry  he  did.     What  might  have  hap- 


l68  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

pened  is  hard  to  say.  Mr.  Fairbank  believes  that 
more  responsibility  ought  to  be  put  on  the  native 
preachers.  Mistakes  will  happen,  but  when  will 
anything  be  done  towards  independence,  if  a  start 
be  not  made  soon." 

After  southern  India,  they  visited  Ahmednagar, 
where  they  were  greatly  impressed  by  the  work 
of  the  Humes  in  the  American  Board  Mission  and 
they  then  went  on  to  visit  Agra,  Delhi,  Lucknow, 
Benares  and  Calcutta.  At  Lucknow,  they  saw 
something  of  the  Methodist  work  and  Pitkin  ob- 
serves in  his  Journal: 

''They  have  had  only  one-tenth  of  the  usual 
baptisms  this  year,  for  two  reasons — ist,  they 
are  afraid  of  rice  Christians,  and  2d,  they  know 
that  famine  relief  is  refused  to  Christians.  When 
asked  about  early  baptism,  Mansell  said  that 
most  baptisms  took  place  after  a  good  deal  of 
previous  instruction  and  they  were  always  fol- 
lowed by  much  more  of  the  same.  In  a  word, 
baptism  seems  to  the  Methodist  a  more  formal 
way  of  expressing  what  in  the  South  is  expressed 
when  a  group  of  families  ask  for  a  school  and 
promise  to  give  up  idolatry,  etc." 

At  Calcutta,  he  was  impressed  by  the  great 
opportunity  for  work  among  students.  Of  the 
building  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion for  student  work,  he  writes  to  the  Pilgrim 
Church: 

"  This  building  lies  in  the  most  unique  student 
centre  in  the  world,  ist,  because  within  a  ra- 
dius of  one-half  a  mile  from  this  as  centre,  live 


The  Journey  to  China  169 

41,000  students  in  upper  institutions  of  learning. 
Take  New  York  City — all  her  students,  men  and 
women,  in  her  higher  institutions  of  learning, 
amount  to  not  more  than  15,000  in  number.  But 
here  are  41,000  packed  into  small  space,  with 
this  building  in  the  centre.  2d,  because  these 
students  are  of  many  kinds  of  faith — Mohamme- 
dans, Parsees  (Indian  fire-worshippers),  Hindu 
sects  by  the  hundred,  Jains,  theosophists,  sceptics 
and  atheists.  3d,  because,  of  these,  many  have 
heard  little  of  Christianity,  some  nothing,  more 
enough  intelligently  to  refuse  it — while  a  very, 
very  few  are  Christians.  What  a  work  to  be 
done!" 

On  April  14th,  they  sailed  from  Calcutta  on  the 
Aratoon  Apcar  for  Singapore,  and  thence  on 
April  26th,  on  the  P.  &  O.  Rohilla.  These  are 
the  first  entries  in  the  Journal: 

**  Sea  calm.  Flying  fish  around  us.  Checkers, 
back-gammon,    etc.,   to   amuse.     We   heard  so 

much  from  the  M s  about  disrespect  shown 

missionaries  that  we  are  on  our  good  behavior. 
Last  night  Letty  slept  on  deck  in  her  chair  and  I 
on  the  berth  mattress  by  her  side. 

"Sea  beautiful  all  day.  Met  a  Mrs.  and  Miss 
S of  England  going  on  Round  World  Tick- 
ets. A  number  are  going  in  this  way.  One  hun- 
dred and  fifty  pounds  from  London.  A  man  sitting 
next  me  goes  to  Pekin  to  enter  consular  service — 
five  years  at  1 1 ,000 — |2,ooo  when  he  ends.  Then 
back  for  three  years  in  England  to  be  made  a  bar- 
rister and  then  with  increased  salary,  he  comes 
back.  They  allow  with  all  travelling  expenses, 
eighty-seven  cents  a  day  for  wines.  Further  down, 
a  man  is  going  to  superintend  the  construction  of 
the  railroad  from  Tientsin.    In  the  second  cabin  is 


170  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

an  S.  P.  G.  missionary  from  inland  from  Chefoo. 
Of  course,  the  usual  chumps  and  snobs  are  on 
board.  But  we  are  doing  very  well.  Slept  on 
deck  last  night." 

They  reached  Shanghai  on  May  7th,  sailing  on 
the  1 2th  on  the  El  Dorado  for  Tientsin,  where  they 
arrived  on  May  1 5th.  On  the  way  up  from  Shang- 
hai he  wrote  a  long  letter  to  Luce,  full  of  advice 
about  packing  goods  which  were  intended  for 
shipment  to  China.  His  counsel  is  worth  quoting 
for  itself  and  also  as  illustrative  of  his  exceed- 
ingly practical  turn  of  mind: 

".  .  .  We  had  a  short  time  in  Shanghai 
and  so  went  around  to  see  things.  Certain 
things  you  can  get  there  cheaper  or  as  cheap  as 
at  home.  But  in  this  class  are  things  that  to  hunt 
out  in  the  native  shops  would  take  a  long  time. 
To  get  them  at  foreign  shops  might  take  away 
their  cheapness.  Then  too,  many  things  can  be 
got  in  Chefoo.  All  steamers  go  through  Shang- 
hai, so  allow  some  time  for  that  place  in  your 
itinerary.  Now  to  details:  I.  All  wicker-work; 
rattan  furniture,  chairs  or  tables  or  stools,  a 
hamper,  etc.,  get  at  Shanghai.  Cheap.  Say 
$1.00  for  what  would  be  $5.00  at  home.  11. 
Sewing-machines  are  dirt  cheap.  Singer  machine 
is  eighteen  to  twenty  dollars;  (fifty  to  sixty  dol- 
lars at  home)  same  thing, — latest.  III.  Silk  is 
very  cheap.  Ribbon  is  about  the  same  as  home. 
IV.  Tinware,  we  expect  is  about  the  same  as 
home.  Easier  to  bring  out,  as  far  as  the  mission- 
aries' report  to  you  allows.  V.  Iron  bedsteads 
are  more  expensive  and  of  less  value.  Bring  such 
from  home — and  bring  that — no  wooden  ones 
will    pay.     VI.     Rugs    are  best  brought.     VII. 


The  Journey  to  China  171 

Mosquito  netting  get  at  Shanghai  through  Mrs. 
Evans — twenty-five  cents  (gold)  a  yard,  twelve 
yards  to  a  double  bed.  VIII.  Floor  matting  get 
at  Shanghai.  Rolls  of  forty  yards  long  and  one 
yard  wide  cost  here  $3.50  a  roll.  But  if  you  stop 
in  Japan,  get  the  matting  there.  It  is  of  much 
better  make,  so  missionaries  tell  us.  IX.  Iron- 
ware, such  as  stoves,  bring  from  home.  I  un- 
derstand that  in  your  mission,  every  one  uses  a 
range  instead  of  a  native  cook-stove.  But  have 
them  crated  heavily— not  boxed— but  have  every 
door  and  peg  and  unscrewable  thing  taken  off 
and  packed  inside  the  stove — that  is  if  the  open- 
ing to  them  can  be  closed — or  packed  in  a  sep- 
arate box. 

''This  letter  has  long  lain  unfinished  and  now 
as  we  are  on  our  first  house  boat,  bound  up  the 
Peiho  to  Tungcho  to  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
mission,  I  have  a  chance  to  finish  it.  Well!  our 
packages  have  arrived  and  most  of  them 
are  in  good  condition.  But  from  some  we 
may  learn  some  lessons,  i.  Have  good 
heavy  boxes— don't  be  afraid  of  the  weight.  It 
makes  little  difference  in  bulk  and  the  latter  is 
what  you  have  to  pay  for.  2.  Have  a  lining  of 
waterproof  cloth  or  tar-paper  with  heavy  brown 
paper  inside.  3.  Put  at  least  four  screws  each 
side  of  the  box— countersink  them  and  fill  the 
hole  with  sealing-wax.  No  board  can  then  come 
off  without  showing  and  the  Oriental  won't 
tamper  with  wax.  4.  Put  around  the  ends  of 
the  boxes  iron  straps,  overlap  the  ends  of  same 
well  and  fasten  with  good-sized  nails.  5.  Again, 
don't  be  afraid  of  good  boxes;  the  wood  is  use- 
ful here  and  you  won't  have  things  wet  or  ab- 
stracted. Insurance  amounts  to  little,  unless 
everything  is  lost,  and  damages  on  weak  parcels 
are  hard  to  collect.  Care  does  pay.  This  water- 
proof lining  refers  to  books,  dry-goods  or  pic- 


172    A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

tures.  6.  For  pictures,  leave  plenty  of  space 
between  glass  and  boards,  for  "handle  with  care " 
doesn't  go  out  here  so  long  as  they  don't  break 
the  wood — therefore  it  may  bend  and  spoil  a  pic- 
ture. 7.  For  crockery,  don't  have  it  packed  in 
barrels  but  in  boxes.  The  Oriental  loves  cups 
and  glasses,  and  to  break  in  a  stove  or  open  a 
head  or  slip  a  hoop — abstract  the  articles  and  close 
everything  up  again — it  is  his  delight.  Even 
heavy  casks  sometimes  suffer.  Bring  all  your 
books,  and  as  for  furniture — well!  They  tell  you 
here  that  you  can  get  fine  furniture  at  little  price. 
It's  true!  But  it  is  made  of  unseasoned  wood 
and  if  you  could  see  the  warps,  and  shrinks,  etc., 
etc.,  in  some  of  the  furniture,  you  would  agree 
with  me  that  chairs  (knocked  down,  of  course — 
so  bring  a  pound  or  so  of  glue  and  glue-pot — 
native  glue  is  poor — also  one-half  dozen  wooden  or 
iron  clamps  to  hold  the  parts  together  in  drying), 
bedroom  set  or  any  furniture  with  many  drawers, 
should  be  brought  from  home.  But  bookcase 
can  be  made  here  really  cheaply  and  plenty  good 
enough.  If  a  door  sticks,  you  don't  mind — but 
to  have  a  bureau  or  washstand,  etc.,  with  draw- 
ers, cupboards,  etc.,  sticking — it's  a  waste  of  good 
patience!  So  don't  bring  bookcases.  On  the 
glass  of  pictures,  paste  a  large  sheet  of  paper 
with  the  white  of  an  egg.  Then  if  the  glass 
breaks,  the  pieces  are  held  together  and  do  not 
scratch  the  picture.  Don't  trust  to  professional 
packers.  Be  satisfied  as  to  results  only  by  per- 
sonal supervision.  Then  you  can  blame  none  but 
yourself  if  anything  goes  wrong.  So  much  for 
packing.     .     .     ." 

After  a  week  in  Tientsin,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pitkin 
went  on  to  Tungcho,  where  the  annual  meeting 
of  the  mission  was  held,  enabling  them  to  meet 


The  Journey  to  China  173 

most  of  their  fellow-missionaries.  On  Sunday 
afternoon,  Pitkin  was  asked  to  tell  of  the  trip 
through  India,  which  he  did,  expecting  to  talk 
about  half  an  hour,  **but  one  hour  and  twenty 
minutes  passed  before  he  closed."  After  the 
meeting,  he  made  a  hurried  visit  to  Peking  and 
his  future  station  Paotingfu.  For  the  summer, 
they  went  to  Pei-tai-ho.  As  soon  as  they  were 
settled,  Pitkin  wrote  to  Luce,  who  was  going  to 
China  in  the  fall: 

'* .     .     .     We  reached  Tientsin  May  15th,  stop- 
ping at  Chefoo  an  hour  or  two  to  see  your  mis- 
sion.    After  a  week  we  took  house  boat  for  five 
days  up  to  Tungcho  to  annual  mission  meeting. 
It  was  glorious.     The  sweetest,  most  devotional 
spirit  one  could  wish  for!     .     .     .     Pei-tai-ho  is 
the  finest  spot  on  the  Chinese  coast.     A  high  bluff. 
Gigantic  rocks— fine  sand  beach  and  simply  ele- 
gant bathing.     Now  different  Boards  in  Tientsin, 
Peking,  Paotingfu,  etc.,  etc.,  have  large  plots  of 
ground;    an   association   has   been   formed   and 
cheap  brick  and  stone  houses— one  story,  three 
rooms— put    up.     Some    sixty   missionaries   are 
here  besides  thirty  to  forty  children  and  in  this  cool 
invigorating  spot  you  can  imagine  what  a  good 
time  we  have.     Haven't  had  a  hot  day  yet— the 
rainy  season  is  setting  in,  but  the  sun  shines  be- 
tween showers  and  the  moon  is  getting  full.     The 
sunsets  over  distant  mountains  are  finer  than  any- 
thing we  have  ever  seen  and  the  whole  place  is 
an    ideal    one.    Now   we  have  three  hours   of 
Chinese  in  the  morning,  two  in  the  afternoon- 
bathing,  etc.,  takes  an  hour— bed  at  9:30. 

"...     Chinese  language  is  no  snap.     We 
have  a  young  fellow  as  teacher  who  has  a  Tungcho 


1 74  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

B.  A.  and  goes  to  the  Theological  Seminary  there 
this  fall.  Nice  as  can  be — though  we  have  dif- 
ficulty in  understanding  him  in  all  that  he  says! 
Also  our  tongues  will  get  twisted  around  these 
horrid  syllables.  In  some  ways,  it  is  harder  than 
we  expected, — in  some  ways  it  is  easier. 

**.  .  .  By  the  way,  be  sure  to  see  person- 
ally to  all  the  boxes  packed.  If  they  are  crated, 
see  that  the  bars  are  close  together  and  the  main 
ones,  such  as  end  and  middle  ones,  reinforced  with 
iron  straps.  Take  no  one's  word  for  how  they  are 
packed.  See  them  finally  yourself  and  you  will 
be  happy  and  bless  me  some  months  hence." 

He  wrote  also  from  Pei-tai-ho  on  July  1 8th  to 
Dr.  Smith  of  the  Board  in  Boston,  reporting  their 
arrival  and  giving  some  summary  of  their  expe- 
riences and  of  the  results  of  the  long  and  circui- 
tous journey  to  their  field : 

*•  We  have  at  last  reached  China,  and  have  had 
our  introduction  to  most  of  the  fellow-mission- 
aries at  the  Tungcho  meeting.  They  suggested 
that  we  spend  the  summer  here  and  go  into 
Paotingfu  in  the  fall.  So  we  are  here  with  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Shapleigh,  in  the  best  place  in  all  China 
for  studying  Chinese.  Our  teacher  is  a  fine  young 
fellow,  who  has  been  teaching  school  a  year  in 
Paotingfu  and  goes  back  this  fall  to  Tungcho  to 
take  up  the  theological  v/ork  under  Dr.  Goodrich. 
We  are  taking  our  first  dive  into  the  waters. 
They  are  not  as  cold  in  some  ways  as  I  had  ex- 
pected. Yet  this  does  not  imply  that  we  think 
the  language  anything  but  difficult.  We  cer- 
tainly realize  that  fact,  but  we  believe  that  the 
Lord  will  ever  keep  before  us  the  true  purpose 
with  which  we  are  studying  this  tongue — to 
preach  Christ  crucified. 


The  Journey  to  China  175 

'*.  .  .  A  week  in  Jerusalem  and  vicinity 
opened  many  pages  of  Scripture  like  a  new 
book.  .  .  .  We  entered  India  February  9th,  at 
Tuticorin,  spent  a  Sunday  at  the  C.  M.  S.  work 
in  Tinnevelly  and  went  on  to  Madura.  .  .  . 
In  order  to  see  a  little  of  the  Arcot  work  of  the 
Dutch  Reformed  missionaries,  we  stopped  at  two 
of  their  stations.  It  was  peculiarly  instructive  to 
catch  the  note  of  evangelistic  work  that  has  been 
so  prominent  a  feature  of  their  work,  and  to  see 
how  they  have  been  led  of  the  Lord  to  enter  more 
and  more  on  educational  work  in  order  to  save 
the  Christian  communities  and  to  raise  up  an 
indigenous  Church.  They  have  also  had  thrown 
on  them  in  a  most  providential  way,  educational 
work  for  a  large  number  of  Hindus.  We  shall 
watch  with  interest  to  see  how  the  intense 
evangelistic  spirit  will  affect  the  school  of  800 
pupils,  only  one  hundred  of  whom  are  from 
Christian  parents.  From  there,  we  passed  to 
Sholapur  for  over  Sunday. 

'*.  .  .  Ahmednagar  was  the  next  place, 
and  for  two  weeks  we  were  with  Dr.  Robert 
Hume.  Fortunately  for  us,  Edward  Hume's 
school  was  there  at  the  time,  so  we  caught  a  little 
of  the  Bombay  work  that  otherwise  would  have 
been  shut  from  us.  It  seemed  like  leaving  home 
when  we  started  once  more  on  our  way  north. 
With  all  the  knowledge  that  we  gained  in  the 
two  weeks,  we  received  a  great  blessing  spirit- 
ually from  the  lives  of  those  about  us.  To  have 
such  fellowship  was  a  rare  treat,  and  must  be 
to  us  an  augury  of  the  showers  of  blessing  that 
some  day  must  water  that  Marathi  work. 

'*.  .  .  We  were  then  in  the  midst  of  the 
famine  district,  and  from  actual  observation,  as 
well  as  from  the  statement  of  the  missionaries 
who  were  almost  swamped  with  the  relief  work, 
we  understood  the  bright  and  dark  side  of  this 


176  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Government  relief  work.  The  mass  of  native 
corruption  in  administration  of  famine  funds  is 
appalling.  Yet  we  could  not  but  thank  God  that 
so  much  after  all  was  being  done  for  the  sufferers. 
Britain  has  done  all  she  can.  It  is  only  of  the 
necessity  of  things  that  corruption  must  be  rife. 
We  were  sorry  not  to  see  a  little  of  the  Presby- 
terian work  at  Lahore,  but  the  weather  was 
rapidly  growing  hot;  in  fact,  by  a  remarkable 
freak  of  weather,  we  had  the  most  delicious  cool 
temperature  at  a  time  when  under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances, it  ought  to  have  been  very  oppressive 
— especially  so  to  travellers. 

".  .  .  We  left  Calcutta  April  14th,  with  the 
weather  very  warm,  and  had  a  beautiful  voyage 
to  Singapore,  via  Penang.  Here  we  spent  Sun- 
day, in  view  of  the  need  of  changing  steamers, 
and  were  entertained  by  the  American  Methodists. 
As  in  Calcutta  to  the  students,  so  in  Singapore  to 
members  of  the  same  class  in  the  nigh  largest 
mission  school  in  the  world,  I  had  the  chance  of 
speaking  English.  This  school  is  interesting  from 
three  view-points:  First.  It  is  self-supporting, 
even  to  foreign  teachers,  etc.  Second.  It  is 
made  up  of  so-many-tongued  lads,  twelve  I  be- 
lieve. Third.  Contrary  to  M.  E.  policy,  it  was 
started  with  the  distinct  understanding  that  no 
Christianity  should  be  taught — the  teachers  grad- 
ually violated  that  until  a  crisis  came  last  year  that 
nearly  destroyed  the  school.  A  compromise  was 
adopted  and  the  wedge  of  Christianity  now 
started  will  surely  be  pushed  in.  It  opens  up  the 
neutral  school  problem  in  a  most  interesting  way. 

".     .     .     Just  a  word  in  summary: 

"I.  Whatever  our  expectations  were  as  to 
our  seeing  mission  work,  they  came  far  short  of 
reality. 

"2.  As  for  our  touch  with  missionaries,  we 
have  gained  a  knowledge  of  and  love  for  them 


The  Journey  to  China  177 

such  as  will  last  for  life;  and  be  a  glorious  founda- 
tion on  which  to  build. 

"  3.  We  are  sure  that  their  interest  in  us  is,  in 
the  majority  of  cases,  deep  and  lasting.  We  be- 
lieve that  God  blessed  us  with  them. 

"4.  Pilgrim  Church  in  Cleveland  has  been 
helped  by  our  experience  in  other  lands.  In  one 
case,  a  contribution  to  an  important  object  was 
saved  by  our  report  to  them  on  it. 

"5.  We  believe  more  than  ever  that  our  asso- 
ciates in  the  work  here  are  to  have  a  share  in  our 
blessing.  At  the  annual  meeting  opportunity  un- 
solicited (in  fact,  at  first  repelled)  was  given  us 
to  speak  of  our  trip.  Much  kindly  interest  was 
shown. 

**6.  From  a  financial  view-point,  we  have 
seen  openings  in  other  lands  that  will,  we  hope, 
in  time  be  filled  by  us. 

"  In  all,  we  have  been  wonderfully  guided  and 
kept  by  our  Father.  Our  health  amid  changes  of 
climate  and  food  has  been  remarkably  good — and 
for  it  all  we  thank  Him  and  shall  thank  Him  more 
and  more  in  the  coming  days." 


VII 

LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  CHINA 

So  he  died  for  his  faith.     That  is  fine  — 

More  than  most  of  us  do. 
But,  say,  can  you  add  to  that  line. 

That  he  lived  for  it,  too  ? 

In  his  death,  he  bore  witness  at  last 

As  a  martyr  to  truth. 
Did  his  life  do  the  same  in  the  past 

From  the  days  of  his  youth  ? 

It  is  easy  to  die.     Men  have  died 

For  a  wish  or  a  whim  — 
From  bravado,  or  passion  or  pride. 

Was  it  harder  for  him  ? 

But  to  live — every  day  to  live  out 

All  the  truth  that  he  dreamt, 
While  his  friends  met  his  conduct  with  doubt 

And  the  world  with  contempt ; 

Was  it  thus  that  he  plodded  ahead,  .  .." 

Never  turning  aside  ?  "  :'* 

Then  we'll  talk  of  the  life  that  he  led. 
Never  mmd  how  he  died. 

At  the  end  of  the  summer,  they  went  to  the 
station  at  Paotingfu.  In  an  interesting  letter  to 
the  Pilgrim  Church,  Pitkin  describes  the  location 
of  the  station  and  the  method  of  reaching  it  when 
he  and  Mrs.  Pitkin  joined  the  mission,  and  tells 

178 


Life  and  Work  in  China  179 

something  of  his  new  surroundings.  The  rail- 
road from  Tientsin  to  Peking  was  opened  in  the 
summer  of  1897,  but  the  road  from  Peking  to 
Paotingfu  had  not  yet  been  completed,  The  old 
river  route,  accordingly,  was  still  in  use.  This 
letter  was  dated  at  Paotingfu,  January  5,  1898: 

"You    all    know    the    relative    positions    of 
Tientsin,  Peking  and  Paotingfu,  and  you  know 
that  the  river,  starting  from  Tientsin,  forks  a  few 
miles  out,  one  branch  called  the  Peiho  gomg  to 
Peking,  the  other  called  the  Clear  River,  coming 
in  a  southwest  direction  down  here.     Everything 
looks  the  same  on  the  map.     What  a  difference 
here!     The  Peiho  is  a  swift,  muddy  stream,  with 
great  curves  and  wind-swept  sand-banks,  while 
little  vegetation  is  to  be  seen  from  the  boat.    The 
Clear   River   for  three-quarters   of  its  length  is 
formed  by  a  chain  of  lakes  and  only  at  this  end 
does    it    narrow   down    almost  to   a   canal-like 
stream,  with  a  few  locks  to  help  navigation.     At 
Paotingfu   navigation   stops.     And  the   river  is 
beautiful.     The    lakes    are    shallow,  sometimes 
stretching  out  into  large  expanses  of  water,  but 
most  of  the   way  they  are  filled  with   rushes, 
towering    twelve  to  fifteen   feet  high   as  they 
l^ave  a  narrow  winding  channel  for  the  boats. 
In  parts,  the  rushes  seem  divided  off  into  huge 
plots  with  lanes  of  water  intersecting  in  every 
direction.    At  other  places,  the  plodding  Chinaman 
has  dug  mud  out  of  the  channel  and  is  trying  to 
make   ground   for  cultivation.     Now   and  then 
huge  patches  of  enormous  lotus  leaves  intervene. 
Evidently  swamp  land  separated  the  lakes  at  one 
time,  for  between  the  lakes,  the  channel  runs  be- 
tween mud  dykes  that  are  crowned  each  one  by 
a  road,  lined  on  either  side  by  a  row  of  trees  and 


l8o  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

a  row  of  graves,  each  of  which  is  topped  by  a 
huge  earth  mound,  or  finally,  a  small  lake  may  be 
cut  off  for  cultivation  purposes  by  a  dyke  running 
along  one  side  of  it,  leaving  room  for  a  deep 
channel.  Villages  are  numerous,  the  channel 
carries  an  immense  "nfumber  of  boats;  you  are 
never  alone  and  out  of  sight  when  walking  on 
the  bank;  the  rushes  give  shelter  in  the  fall  to 
thousands  of  ducks  and  geese,  that  grow  very 
bold,  through  familiarity,  while  the  number  of 
fhh&xm^  one  sees  ought  to  indicate  a  pretty 
liberal  fish  diet  for  the  surrounding  population. 
You  can  imagine  how  we  enjoyed  the  trip.  Give 
us  windmills  and  we  could  make  ourselves  think 
of  Holland.  Naturally,  the  sunsets  were  glorious, 
for  besides  this  scenery  of  miles  and  miles  of 
waving  green  and  brown  rush-heads  with  the 
paths  and  stretches  of  water,  the  mountains  rose 
to  the  northwest  almost  parallel  to  our  course. 

**  Two  boats  take  us  bag  and  baggage.  If  you 
want  to  see  the  style  of  boat,  look  on  page  thirty 
of  Chinese  Characteristics  by  A.  H.  Smith.  One 
boat  has  freight,  with  a  huge  piano  box  filled 
with  dry  goods  crowning  the  bow,  and  our  boat 
with  its  complement  of  freight  stowed  under 
deck,  with  another  huge  piano  box  containing 
our  Steinway,  acting  as  figure-head,  carries  our 
cook,  kitchen,  bedroom,  living-room,  dining- 
room  and  ourselves.  Cook  and  kitchen  took  up 
four  by  six  of  space,  a  lattice-door  covered  with 
thin  white  paper  led  on  to  our  bed,  simply 
woven  wire  springs  placed  on  a  broad  wooden 
shelf,  called  a  *Kang.'  Bedroom,  etc.,  on  close 
examination  materialized  into  a  cabin  ten  by  six, 
which  allowed  us  two  chairs,  a  trunk  and  a 
square  table.  Windows  on  the  sides  were  lattice 
with  part  paper,  part  glass  covering,  but  if  nec- 
essary, the  whole  side  of  the  cabin  could  easily 
come  out.     The  front  was  of  boards  matched 


Life  and  Work  in  China  181 

and  sliding  in  grooves.  Our  cook  was  a  quiet 
fellow  who  did  his  work  well.  Food  had  to  be 
brought  along  the  narrow  deck  of  the  boat  out- 
side the  cabin  and  passed  in  at  the  window. 
One  gets  used  to  cockroaches  on  these  boats. 
The  cabins  are  usually  roughly  papered  and  at 
night  the  rustling  of  the  multitudes  is  rather  dis- 
turbing at  first.  They  say  that  if  one  finds  many 
of  these  friends  aboard,  it  is  a  sure  sign  of  the  ab- 
sence of  worse  things.  So  we  can  even  rejoice 
in  the  rustling!  We  were  aboard  by  six  in  the 
evening,  Wednesday,  September  23d,  and  after 
an  hour's  going,  we  tied  up  for  the  night.  At 
3  A.  M.  the  boatmen  were  at  it,  working  till 
about  10  A.  M.  when  their  first  meal  came.  Off 
again  in  an  hour  and  steady  work  till  seven, 
when  some  large  village  would  be  reached  and 
our  boat  would  tie  up  alongside  a  long  line  of 
craft.  *  Work  ? '  you  say.  '  How  ? '  Every  boat 
has  a  mast.  They  run  up  a  curious  square  sail 
for  a  favoring  breeze  and  with  a  wind  further  aft 
than  a  beam,  the  men  sit  around  and  look  at  the 
scenery.  But  most  winds  are  head-winds — if 
they  are  not  at  first,  some  bend  in  the  river  soon 
brings  them.  Then  it's  *  pole '  for  the  fellows,  and 
*  pole '  they  do,  running  at  a  jog  along  the  narrow 
ledge  the  length  of  the  boat,  keeping  time  with 
their  bare  feet  or  cloth  shoes.  Or  it's  'every 
one  out  for  a  walk' — when  they  rig  up  a  line 
from  the  top  of  the  mast  and  with  a  series  of 
loops  fastened  to  boards  running  across  their 
chests,  they  turn  into  tow-mules.  If  an  inter- 
secting stream  is  met,  they  scramble  on  board,  or 
off  with  their  clothes — all  too  light  at  the  best — 
they  swim  for  it.  So  long  as  it  doesn't  rain  or 
isn't  cold,  these  fellows  are  merry  as  children  the 
day  long.  Let  the  rain  come  and  every  China- 
man wants  to  go  home.  The  boatmen  pull  up 
the  deck-boards  and  climb  into  the  stuffy  hold  or 


l82  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

crowd  into  the  kitchen — maybe  a  piece  of  mat- 
ting gives  covering.  But  *work?'  Not  they. 
They  swim — they  bathe — in  fact  they  are  an  im- 
provement along  this  hne  over  people  in  Pales- 
tine and  Egypt — but  no  work  in  the  rain  for 
John !  Then  there  are  bridges  spanning  the  chan- 
nel with  a  very  sharp  curve — usually  made  of 
stone  with  stone  railings  surmounted  by  carved 
dragons.  They  rest  on  piers  of  what  look  like 
piled  up,  worn  out  grind  stones,  or  on  piers  of 
logs  decayed  and  patched  beyond  description. 
Down  comes  the  mast  for  each  one  of  these  ob- 
stacles. It  is  remarkable  how  quickly  they  do  it. 
Thus  all  Thursday  we  worked  our  way  along. 
Friday  a  breeze  came  up  from  behind  and  all  day 
we  drove  through  the  water,  grazing  the  banks  of 
rushes,  scaring  the  ducks,  and  losing  most  of  the 
things  off  of  the  table  as  the  boat  careened. 
Saturday,  we  reached  the  canal  part  of  the  river 
and  with  'tracking'  or  'towing'  alternated  with 
spurts  of  sailing,  we  reached  the  lock  three  miles 
from  the  city,  where  shallow  water  stopped  us. 
But  Mr.  Ewing  was  on  hand  to  take  us  afoot, 
with  a  few  things  aboard  a  cart,  to  our  compound. 
And  we  were  finally  at  home.  Here  is  a  com- 
pound some  500  reet  longirf  200  feet  wide.  At 
the  south  end  is  the  Girls'  Boarding  School  with 
twenty  girls  and  matron,  teacher,  etc.  Miss 
Gould  has  charge  of  this  work,  the  day-schools 
jin  the  city  and  all  woman's  work.  Her  house 
|is  by  the  school — a  house  of  one  story,  built  for 
two  single  women,  the  full  complement  of  the 
station.  A  walk  runs  down  the  centre  of  the 
:ompound  and  at  this  north  end  on  the  west  side 
of  the  walk  is  Mr.  Ewing's  house,  just  being 
completed,  and  the  chapel.  On  the  east  side, 
opposite,  is  Dr.  Noble's  house,  part  of  which  we 
occupy.  The  extreme  end  of  the  compound  has 
the  gate,   stables.   Boys'   Boarding  School  with 


Life  and  Work  in  China  183 

eighteen  boarders,  etc.     A  high  mud  wall  sur- 
rounds the  compound,  for  there  is  no  admittance, 
except  through  the  gate.     In  another  small  com- 
pound close  by,  Dr.  Noble  has  his  dispensary 
and  hospital.     We  are  on  the  boundary  of  the 
south  suburb  of  the  city.     Every  city  of  any  size 
in  China  has  its  wall.     Outside  the  north,  east, 
south  and  west  gates,  cluster  suburbs.     So  we 
are  about  one-fourth  mile  from  the  south  wall, 
directly  south  from  the  southeast  corner  of  the 
wall.     Between  us  and  the  wall  runs  the  river  on 
the  opposite  bank  of  which,  a  little  east  of  us,  is 
the  China  Inland  Mission,  with  one  missionary  in 
charge.     In  the  north  suburb,  a  mile  from  the 
city  wall   north,  is  the  Presbyterian  compound 
with  three  missionaries  ordained  and  one  doctor. 
So  we  are  about  three  miles  from  them  by  the 
road  outside  the  city  wall.     These  are  our  neigh- 
bors and  very  delightful  it  is  to  have  them  in  the 
work,  although  our  districts  are  entirely  separate." 

In  a  letter  to  his  sister,  written  after  a  long  si- 
lence, he  gives  some  further  details  of  their  life: 

** '  It's  a  long  time  between  drinks! '  The  cook 
does  all  the  planning  for,  buying  of  and  prepar- 
ing of  the  food.  That  is  the  way  they  have  out 
here,  and  a  very  varied  menu  he  gets  up.  You 
would  die  to  see  the  little  kitchen  that  he  has  fifty 
feet  away  from  the  house.  His  implements  are 
few,  and  he  has  a  brick  range  with  two  holes, 
no  pipe,  no  oven  or  anything.  Over  one  hole, 
he  gets  up  the  dinner.  An  iron  bowl,  like  a 
wash  bowl  is  tipped  over  with  the  edge  just 
reaching  over  the  edge  of  the  hole,  enough  to 
let  heat  in.  That  makes  his  oven.  His  nieats 
are  done  to  a  turn,  his  bread  and  cake  delicious. 
Then  around  the  hole  (it  is  perhaps  five  inches  in 


184  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

diameter)  are  grouped  butter-tins  with  the  edges 
just  projecting,  so  that  three  or  four  vegetables 
are  going  at  the  same  time.  How  he  cooks,  I 
don't  know.  Still,  there  is  another  side  to  it. 
Everything  \ye  have  has  to  be  lockgd  np^  and 
sugar,  tiour,  buttet,  potatoes,  etc!,  doled  out  day 
after  day.  That  takes  time.  There  is  a  reckon- 
ing every  other  day,  when  he  brings  in  a  bill  for 
all  the  food  bought.  He  can  'squeeze' within 
limits — and  how  much  goes  into  his  pocket,  no 
one  knows.  There  is  a  limit,  but  an  artificial 
one,  for  the  other  cooks  are  with  him  in  stating  a 
certain  price.  Yet  it  is  very  little  after  all,  that 
he  may  get.  Suppose  meat  is  140  cash  a  pound 
—he  may  charge  145— that's  one  fourth  of  a  cent 
more.  It  will  not  ruin  us — yet  it  is  trying  to 
one's  nerves  to  have  to  keep  a  watch  out  all  the 
time. 

*'One  evening  Meng,  the  teacher,  comes  in 
and  with  his  visit  manages  to  bestow  some  Chi- 
nese upon  our  minds.  He  is  a  dear  fellow — 
beautiful  face,  fine  carriage  and  as  fine  a  Chris- 
tian as  one  could  wish  to  see.  He  is  to  be  or- 
dained some  time  this  winter.  With  all  his  work 
here  as  practical  pastor  of  the  station  church,  he 
takes  the  main  Chinese  papers  and  keeps  up  with 
the  times.  He  knew  where  Connecticut  was — 
more  than  some  Englishmen — and  is  interested 
in  everything  that  goes." 

After  his  first  experience  of  a  Chinese  New 
Year  season,  he  writes  again  to  his  sister: 

"  New  Year  for  the  Chinese  has  come— but  not 
gone.  The  226.  of  January  it  came  this  year. 
And  what  a  time  they  have!  It  is  strictly  a  holi- 
day for  one  day  and  almost  one  for  four  more 
days— then  things  begin  to  move,   but  the  ma- 


Life  and  Work  in  China  185 

chinery  is  not  in  working  order  till  after  the  15th 
of  the  first  month,  when  comes  the  Feast  of 
Lanterns.  Ewing  and  I  are  going  to  see  this 
shindy  next  Saturday  evening.  We  go  in  a  cart 
and  liope  to  have  our  helper — Meng,  along.  I 
will  report  of  that  later.  Well,  for  the  few  days 
before  New  Year,  every  one  is  paying  up  debts. 
No  debt  can  be  carried  over  the  New  Year.  That 
means  every  one  flocking  to  the  city  to  sell  things. 
Then  for  four  days  at  least  every  store  is  closed, 
so  every  one  has  to  buy  in  advance.  Altogether, 
it  is  a  great  time.  We  had  to  lay  in  provisions, 
meat  and  all,  for  the  time  from  Saturday  till 
Thursday.  New  Year's  eve  at  midnight  comes 
the  worshipping  of  the  Old  Year  going  out;  J;he 
P4£er  Kitchen  God  that  is  in  every  kitchen  has 
his^uulli  "snv^MM  wrdr'sugar,  so  ItiaL  he  will 
fell  only  good  things  al30ut  the  family  to  the  new 
god  that  is  pasted  up  and  to  the  gods  beyond, 
and  finally  he  is  burnt  up.  The  new  god  is 
pasted  up — the  lintels  of  the  door  are  pasted  over 
with  red  paper  sheets  with  one  or  more  '  Happi- 
ness '  characters  printed  thereon,  and  finally  the 
large  paper  gate  gods  pasted  on  the  front  gates 
are  torn  down  and  new  ones  put  up.  Then 
come  feasting,  drinking,  etc.  Bright  and  early 
New  Year's  morning,  the  calling  commences. 
Every  one  turns  out  in  their  best.  Any  quantity 
of  people  hire  for  an  hour  or  a  day  rich  silks  and 
furs  to  appear  grand  for  once  in  their  lives.  Rela- 
tives are  visited  first — then  others,  so  that  the 
visiting  lasts  for  several  days.  *  Visiting  '  means 
real  visiting,  where  the  man  comes  in,  'makes 
his  manners '  (as  we  say)  that  is,  places  his  closed 
hands  together,  bows  till  they  reach  his  knees — 
then  rises,  lifting  them  in  a  circle  to  the  level  of 
his  forehead,  where  he  shakes  them  up  and  down 
a  little,  leaves  his  card,  with  '  A  Happy  New 
Year '  and  departs  with  '  see  you  again '  as  a  fare- 


1 86  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

well  salutation.  Or  you  can  go  in  a  cart  and 
your  cart  bearer  presents  your  card  to  an  attend- 
ant at  the  gate.  Th;jt'<;  thgjA^ay  Doctor  and  1  did  on 
the  thiri  4^yr-^--W-e.  v4siSa  e^igm'^ri^^ 
fiHMR2jti--th£_rity,  at  e^acj]  of  the  '  yam  en  '  gates 
(oTfTcIal  resjilet'ices)  ourxS5i^_were  presgTTtu± — O f 
course  iF~was  a  farce,  for  ar~ofrB"  uiily'd'id  they 
raise  the  front  curtains  to  the  carts  so  that  we 
might  be  seen;  at  the  others  the  carter  did  the 
business — and  at  one  only,  did  an  attendant  come 
out  and  bow  in  a  general  way  to  each  of  the  shut 
up  carts.  Or  you  may  send  your  card  by  a 
servant.  That's  the  least  honorable  way.  Of 
course,  cards  are  returned.  By  the  evening  of 
the  day  of  our  trip,  every  official  had  returned 
his  cards.  Two  came  in  person — the  rest  sent 
cards.  To  have  them  send  cards  shows  great 
advance  in  treatment  of  foreigners.  To  have 
them  visit  you,  is  decidedly  friendly.  Among 
the  Christians,  the  visiting  and  card  passing  is  the 
same.  Our  teachers,  helpers  and  servants  pre- 
sent us  their  cards,  but  we  send  cards  only  to  the 
teachers  and  helpers.  Women  have  no  cards, 
but  they  all  pay  their  visits  just  the  same.  Early 
Saturday  a.  m.,  a  crowd  of  our  teachers  and 
helpers  were  on  the  front  porch  to  pay  respects. 
Then  all  day  came  women  to  greet  Mrs.  Pitkin 
and  men  to  greet  both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  P.  Men 
ask  for  *T'ai  T'ai '  (madam)  as  well  as  for 
'  Moosher  '  (shepherd)  but  women  only  for  '  T'ai 
T'ai.'  The  cash-shop  keeper  turned  up.  You 
ought  to  have  seen  his  *  manners.'  He  almost 
knelt  towards  the  fireplace,  and  then  with  a 
wave  of  his  hands  and  a  shake  of  his  body  to  get 
his  garments  into  proper  position,  he  made  most 
complete  *  manners  '  to  me.  The  same  followed 
for  Letty.  His  son  who  had  tried  earlier  in  the 
game  to  imitate  his  father  then  gave  us  two  cards 
— one  the  man's  own — the  other  his  shop's  card. 


Life  and  Work  in  China  187 

This  extraordinary  proceeding  is  rather  common, 
they  say.  So,  though  people  can't  buy  and  sell, 
they  can  still  advertise.  1  enclose  my  card.  A 
Chinaman  has  at  least  three  names — his  baby 
name,  or  pet  name;  his  school  name,  when  he 
goes  to  school  and  his  grown-up  name.  His 
school  name  must  have  three  words,  the  first  of 
which  is  his  family  name.  The  grown-up  name, 
also  of  three  or  four  words,  follows  in  sentiment 
somewhat  the  school  name.  Relatives  address 
him  by  the  pet  name,  superiors  by  his  school 
name,  inferiors  by  his  grown-up  name.  There 
are  any  quantities  of  modifications  and  uses,  etc. 
— no  time  to  go  into  it  now.  This  is  the  prin- 
ciple. It's  very  funny  sometimes.  Take  our 
servants.  Two  of  the  three  men  are  brothers. 
The  third  is  a  coolie.  I  ask  him  to  call  the  cook, 
using  the  cook's  school  name  without  the  family 
word  at  the  beginning — he,  if  he  is  new  with  us,  is 
stumped.  He  has  called  the  cook  (who  in  China 
is  head  of  servants),  by  his  grown-up  name;  he 
has  heard  the  cook's  brother  use  the  family  name 
— what  can  this  name  I  am  giving  him  be  ?  Of 
course,  everything  comes  around  in  time — but  this 
illustrates  a  problem." 

A  full  account  of  his  acquisition  of  his  own 
Chinese  name  was  written  to  the  "  Pilgrims  at 
home  "  in  a  letter  of  March  i,  1898: 

"  '  What's  in  a  name  ? '  you  often  ask  in  fun. 
But  it's  a  serious  business  out  here  in  China  to 
answer  such  a  question.  It's  the  question  to  be 
solved  in  every  man's  life — not  once  but  thrice. 
Fortunately  for  us  missionaries,  it  comes  only 
once. 

"  We  send  you  cards  for  the  '  Happy  New 
Year' — somewhat  belated  it  is  true.     Can  you 


i88  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

tell  '  What's  in  this  name  ? '  In  fact,  can  you 
tell  which  end  to  hold  the  card  by  ?  Then,  too, 
it  isn't  a  card — it's  simply  a  piece  of  red  paper. 
Still  the  size  is  just  right  and  it  is  cut,  not  torn,  so 
it's  the  best  and  latest  fashion.  There's  a  fashion 
out  here  in  such  things.  You  will  note  that  we 
are  truly  one  in  our  cards,  for  the  man's  name 
only  is  of  consequence  in  the  community.  The 
man  out  here  certainly  is  the  head  of  the  woman. 
Poor  women! — sometimes  they  even  don't  know 
their  own  by-marriage-acquired  names.  Not 
long  ago  one  of  the  doctors  asked  in  the  dispen- 
sary a  woman  her  name.  She  grew  red  and  con- 
fused— hesitated  and  said  she  didn't  know. 
'What?  not  know  your  own  name?' said  he. 
In  her  distress  she  turned  to  one  of  the  women 
and  said:  'You  tell  him.  I  have  been  married 
only  a  month  and  I  haven't  learned  my  name 
yet.' 

"It  was  a  solemn  conclave  of  four  that  met  in 
our  sitting-room  one  evening  last  December  to 
determine  on  our  name.  The  result  appears  in 
these  cards: 

"Every  Chinaman  has  a  family  name.  Then 
at  different  periods  in  his  life  three  other  names 
are  added.  It  is  lucky  for  the  memories  of  the 
community  that  these  titles  do  not  come  all  at 
once.  Finally,  an  intervening  name  is  added  in 
many  cases.  Let  us  take  up  these  in  order,  ist. 
The  family  name — the  'hsing.'  Every  China- 
man asks  first  of  all — *Guei  hsing'  (Gway — ac- 
cent on  hsing) — 'your  honorable  name?' 
When  this  important  item  is  disposed  of,  conver- 
sation can  begin.  By  Chinese  custom,  there  are 
but  loo  monosyllables  possible  to  be  used  for  this 
purpose.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  infringe- 
ments of  the  custom.  Nevertheless,  confusion 
must  reign  supreme,  were  it  not  for  the  other 
names.     Only  intimates  address  each  other  by 


Life  and  Work  in  China  189 

anything  else  than  the  'hsing.'  Instead  of  say- 
ing 'Mr.  B.,'  the  Chinaman  says  '  B.  Mr.'  So 
it  is  B.  Hsien  Sheng  (e  like  'u'  in  'hung') 
which  means  Mr.  B.  B.  Tai  Fu  (dai  foo)  which 
means  Dr.  B.,  or  B.  Mu  Shih  (moo  shih)  Shep- 
herd B.  Our  ordained  missionary's  regular  title 
is  'Shepherd.'  So  it  goes  through  all  the  titles 
—and  a  man  is  very  careful  to  get  your  title  cor- 
rect. 

"2d.  Comes  the  'Hsiao  Ming'  (hsi-ao-ming) 
or  'little  name.'  This  is  composed  of  two 
words  and  is  considered  very  carefully  so  as  to 
express  some  thought  connected  with  the  child. 
Only  family  and  verv  dearest  friends  call  the  boy 
and  man  by  this  name.  The  first  part  of  his 
school  life  and  possibly  all  of  it,  he  is  known  by 
this  name.  In  general,  to  use  it  to  him  in  man- 
hood shows  close  intimacy.  Sometimes  there 
comes  an  intervening  name— the  '  Hsueh-ming 
or '  school  name.'  This  lasts  only  through  school- 
life  and  often  is  not  given  at  all. 

"3d.     When   a  boy   gets  to  the  age  of  sa}; 
twelve  to  fourteen,  he  receives  his  '  Ta  ming ' 
(da  ming).     This  is  the  nearest  to  his  true  name. 
It  is  of  two  words  and  is  chosen  to  express  some 
thought,  though  entirely  different  from  that  of  the 
'  little  name.'     This  is  his  popular  name.     When 
intimacy  breaks  beyond  the  '  B.  Mr.,'  the  next 
question   is    'your   honorable  ming'— only  the 
Chinaman  doesn't  ask  it  in  that  way— he  must 
needs  ask  for  the  fourth  and  highest  name,  the 
*hao'     (how).        'Your     honorable     hao '— to 
which     comes     the     humble     self-depreciatory 
answer,    '  My  despicable   ming    is  so  and  so. 
Thus  they  ask  for  bread,  while  wanting  a  stone 
and  they  get  a  stone.     Still,  if  they  persist  and 
want  bread,  they  may  soon  learn  the  third  and 

last  name.  ,  .  ,   •    .u      «-  •  1 

"  4th.    The  '  Hao  '  (how)  which  is  the  otticial 


igo  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

name,  composed  of  two  words,  carries  on  the 
thought  of  the  *  Ta  ming '  and  is  used  only  in  a 
formal  way.  We  then  see  the  family  name,  the 
little  name,  the  possible  school  name,  the  big 
name  and  the  official  name. 

**  Now  we  missionaries  have  to  take  three  of 
the  four  names  all  in  a  bunch.  We  hardly  need 
the  'little  name,'  for  our  Chinese  relatives  are 
not  many.  As  to  the  '  Hsing '  or  family  name, 
the  foreigners  as  a  rule  try  to  choose  this  name 
according  to  some  resemblance  to  their  own 
name,  either  in  sound  or  in  sense.  This  gives  a 
clue  as  to  who  you  are  when  another  foreigner 
hears  your  name.  Dr^  Noble  in  this  station  ap- 
p^qrs.  asi  '  Pap  Tai  Pu '  (bough  dai  too)  tor  Pao 
nieans^obleTMrrEwmg^ 
rrtU  shih'Xyu  moo  shih),  yu  beingthe  nearest  to 
'BW.'  Old  D"ir~'6aotlTT^;:TC'T^^ 
(foo)  for  *fu'  means  1iappmess,"sTJdr"b^tn]g -the 
result  of  possessing  the  qualities  suggested  in  a 
*  Dr.  Good-rich.'  So  we  were  dubbed  Pi  (bee) 
as  the  nearest  sound  to  '  Pi-t.'  The  meaning  is 
of  no  consequence — simply  *  end  or  final.'  Now 
look  at  the  card.  On  the  red  side  is  our  '  Hsing' 
and  *  ming.'    The  top  character  is  the  *  Pi '  (bee). 

"The  two  next  characters  are  our  'Ming.' 
Foreigners  try  to  choose  a  '  ming '  to  represent 
in  sound  (with  or  without  the  hsing)  some  one 
of  their  own  names,  and  also  in  sense  to  express 
some  proper  thought.  So  our  ming  is,  *  Te 
Ching,' — du  (as  in  dull)  jing — so  near  to  Pe-ter- 
kin— Pitkin!  Oh,  but  that's  not  all!  'Te' 
means  virtue  and  '  Ching '  means  Bible,  so  we 
are  supposed  by  this  happy  combination  to 
oossess  the  virtue  that  can  come  only  from  the 
3ible.  A  right  proper  thought,  we  take  it. 
finally,  as  to  our  Hao  (how).  Turn  over  the  card 
and  you  will  see  it  in  red.  It  is  of  two  characters 
— ^Jung   yi   (joong    yee)   and  this   means    *glo- 


Life  and  Work  in  China  191 

rious.'  In  a  word,  the  virtue  obtained  from  the 
Bible  leads  one  on  to  a  glorious  condition.  Then 
to  the  *  hao '  (how)  on  the  card  is  appended 
*  Hang  yi '  (hong  yee)  meaning  *  the  first- 
born.' 'Second  or  third  born,'  etc.,  would  be 
placed  here  to  fit  the  condition,  so  we  have  it — 
Pi  (bee)  with  virtue  from  the  Bible  has  become 
glorious — he  is  the  first-born." 

The  Pilgrim  Church  was  taking  deep  interest 
in  its  representatives.  A  missionary  bulletin 
board  was  placed  by  the  Christian  Endeavor  So- 
ciety in  the  lower  hall  of  the  Church.  A  map  of 
the  Paotingfu  Compound  was  placed  here  and 
from  time  to  time,  photographs  and  portions  of 
letters  and  facts  about  the  work  were  displayed. 
The  letters  from  Mr.  Pitkin  were  most  entertain- 
ing and  educative.  On  March  29,  1898,  he  sent 
an  account  of  a  feast  at  the  house  of  a  Chinese 
Mohammedan  priest  in  Paotingfu: 

*Mnst  w^^^,  I  wns  invited  to  a  feast  at  the 
hqme^of  one  of  the_MQhammedan  Bljests^n-the 
city.~  Women  invTte  woTnen,  and  men,  men;  so 
Mrs.  Pitkin  could  not  go.  I  went  with  Mr. 
Ewing,  our  other  ordained  man  here.  I  want  to 
describe  the  day's  experiences,  for  *  day  '  it  was, 
as  we  left  at  half-past  ten  and  did  not  return  till 
after  four.  Every  gentleman  rides  in  a  cart  when 
out  on  social  duties.  The  cart  usually  is  hired,  it 
may  be  a  tumbled  down  concern — no  matter!  it 
is  a  cart,  and  Madam  Grundy  is  satisfied.  So  we 
took  a  cart.  Look  on  page  sixty  of  Chinese 
Characteristics  and  you  will  see  the  genus  cart. 
With  two  passengers  one  man  climbs  inside  and 
sits  on  the  hard  cushioned  fioor,  leaning  against 
the  back,  and  with  arms  akimbo  keeps  his  head 


192  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

from  being  banged  into  jelly  as  ruts  and  stones 
are  encountered.  (Incidentally,  nothing  is  so 
severe  on  one's  temper  as  to  have  your  head 
come  slap  up  against  that  hard  wood  frame.) 
The  other  sits  outside  and  hangs  his  feet  over. 
Back  to  back  with  him  sits  the  driver  on  the  other 
side.  Thus  the  procession  started.  You  know  we 
are  south  of  the  southeast  corner  of  the  city  wall, 
and  the  river  flows  between.  So  we  made  for 
the  *  Beggar  Bridge,'  spanning  the  river  in  front 
of  the  South  Gate  of  the  city  and  then  entered  the 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  square  metropolis.  Pe- 
king gates  are  made  in  one  fashion.  Every  city 
in  North  China  has  gates  of  like  style.  At  each 
gate,  the  wall  takes  on  a  huge  semicircular  ex- 
crescence, at  one  side  of  and  into  which  is  the 
outer  gate.  Passing  through  this  and  turning  at 
right  angles,  you  enter  the  city  gate  proper. 
What  massive  gates — iron  sheathed  and  iron 
studded!  But  poor  China!  Forever  fighting 
well-armed  foes  with  bamboo  rods,  as  she  did 
the  Japanese!  The  iron  sheathing  turns  out  to 
be  painted  squares  of  tin  from  kerosene  cans,  and 
the  studs,  gigantic  headed  tacks!  The  wood  is 
often  rotten — the  whole  concern  is  dilapidated — 
but  all  looks  imposing!  That's  enough!  Every 
North  China  city  has  four  main  streets,  leading 
from  the  four  gates  of  the  city.  '  East,  West, 
North,  South  Streets,'  according  to  the  Chinese 
points  of  compass.  The  East  and  West  Gates  are 
opposite  each  other;  their  streets  are  continuous. 
You  walk  along  the  South  Street,  expecting  to 
enter  the  North  Street  and  so  reach  the  North 
Gate,  yet  you  find  yourself  lost.  The  wily  China- 
man knows  that  an  army  of  evil  spirits  (or  men) 
could  march  from  north  to  south  and  so  capture 
the  city.  He  therefore  puts  the  North  Gate  to 
one  side  of  the  centre,  runs  the  North  Street  into 
another  part  of  the  East  Street  and  is  safe!     Evil 


Life  and  Work  in  China  193 

spirits  never  enter  the  East,  West  or  South  Gates. 
They  go  for  the  North  Gate  and  even  after  all 
these  centuries  get  fooled  as  badly  as  ever. 

**  Paotingfu  streets  are  quite  decent  in  cold  and 
dry  weather.  In  warm,  the  smell  is  unendurable, 
in  wet,  they  are  a  mass  of  mud,  and  clay  mud, 
at  that!  Imagine  streets  twelve  to  eighteen  feet 
wide  with  no  especial  foot  or  wagon  paths;  let 
there  be  one-story  buildings  on  each  side,  mostly 
stores  on  the  main  streets;  let  each  store  have  an 
open  front  with  counter  running  the  length  of 
the  store  and  all  work  and  trade  in  full  view;  let 
black  sign-boards  with  gilt  characters  wave  with 
gay  streamers  in  the  breeze,  hung  from  their 
ends;  add  recesses  here  and  there  for  wells 
(covered)  and  cesspools  (open);  make  some  of 
the  narrower  streets  covered  with  bamboo  poles 
and  matting;  throw  in  a  crowd  everywhere  and 
have  everybody  looking  at  you — and  you  have 
the  streets  that  we  went  through.  At  last  we 
arrived  at  our  destination,  and  were  led  through 
the  front  gate  into  a  small  yard,  which  opened 
into  the  main  court  of  20x40  feet.  Here  we 
met  the  priest  and  *  made  our  manners.'  What's 
that — you  ask  ?  Well,  an  ordinary  greeting  in 
China  consists  in  shutting  your  own  fists,  putting 
them  together,  bowing  till  they  touch  your  knees, 
straightening  the  body  and  lifting  the  fists  to  the 
level  of  the  face,  where  you  shake  them  slightly, 
meanwhile  ejaculating  a  'how'  in  a  sweeping 
tone,  beginning  low  and  ending  high.  That's 
all.  '  It's  enough,'  you  say.  And  yet  it  is  not  at 
all  distant.  One  would  at  first  prefer  a  hearty 
handshake — but  now  we  are  quite  wedded  to 
this  form  of  greeting.  It  certainly  is  pleasanter 
than  either  Hindu  (touching  fingers  of  one  hand 
to  forehead)  or  Moslem  (touching  forehead  and 
breast)  salutes.  Then  there's  the  'greeting  ex- 
traordinary,'— but  its  modus  operandi  must  be 


cV 


194  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

reserved  for  another  time.  From  the  court  we 
were  led  into  the  house  at  once.  Two  rooms, 
one  large,  one  small  is  the  regulation  open  part 
of  any  house.  The  front  door  enters  the  large 
room  which  is  the  public  room.  Opposite  the 
door  is  a  table  with  straight  back  chairs  on  each 
side.  There  the  visitor  sits  and  drinks  tea.  At 
one  side,  a  door  enters  the  small  room,  and 
\y^  thither  invited  guests  usually   are  led.     In  this 

^  particular  house,  a  brick  bed  across  one  side  of 

the  room,  a  table  and  two  chairs,  a  brick  stove 
for  the  hot  water,  a  bench,  a  clock,  a  couple  of 
mirrors,  a  stack  of  books,  a  cupboard,  one  large 
scroll  of  'Allah,'  furnished  this  yellowish-white 
papered,  brick-floored  and  paper-windowed 
room.  Three  panes  of  glass  were  let  into  the 
paper  and  these  were  quickly  blocked  by  the 
eyes  of  the  curious  crowd,  as  we  took  our  seats 
and  were  served  with  tea.  Chinese  tea  is  made 
by  dropping  the  leaves  into  the  cup,  adding 
boiling  water  and  putting  a  saucer  on  top.  You 
drink,  taking  up  the  cup  in  both  hands  and  slip- 

Eing  the  saucer  enough  to  make  a  strainer  of  it. 
oiling  water  is  constantly  added — two  kettles 
were  going  on  the  little  brick  stove — and  the 
amount  one  drinks  unconsciously  is  amazing. 
Immediately  the  regular  quizzing  began.  *  Your 
honorable  name.?'  'Your  honorable  age.?' 
'Your  wife's  age?'  Then  came  a  comparison 
of  ages,  interspersed  by  silences  of  silent  soaking 
into  the  brain  for  future  reference.  Next  time 
we  meet,  the  same  questions  may  be  asked.  It's 
the  polite  thing!  The  priest  had  been  joined  by 
another, — both  of  them  were  very  wide-awake 
for  Chinamen.  The  door  was  crowded  with 
children.  One  or  two  older  boys  served  us  with 
tea  and  sat  at  one  side.  In  America,  one  often 
wonders  what  we  do  at  a  feast.  I  am  trying  to 
give  an  outline  of  proceedings.    Our  priest-friend 


Life  and  Work  in  China  195 

amused  himself  awhile  by  asking  Ewing  what 
State  he  belonged  to  and  then  trying  to  write  it 
in  Arabic.     Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  were 
pretty  hard  to  pronounce.     Ewing  asked  what 
they  thought  of  China's  position.     '  Oh,  going  to 
the  dogs,'  they  frankly  admitted;    vxhe__offkiaJs 
are^Q-cai:aipt, '     'How  much  do  your  "soldiers 
get  ? '  was  their  next  question.    We  had  to  make 
a  guess  (do  any  of  you  know  ?)  then  retorted, 
*  How  much  do  yours  ?'    *  Two  to  three  dollars 
a  month  and  food.'     Hereupon,  the  elder  priest 
who  wore    a    blue    silk    ulster  lined   with  fur 
over    which    was    a    sleeveless    waistcoat    of 
brown    corduroy    with    brass    buttons    started 
to    ask    Ewing    Bible    questions,     meanwhile, 
showing     him     the     Arabic    Old    Testament. 
'The  names  of  Jacob's  sons?'     'The  sons  of 
Ishmael?'    'How    old    was    Ishmael   when   he 
died?'  etc.,  etc.,  etc.     It   was   rather  a   ticklish 
position  to  be  in,  but  when  he  could  get  breath, 
Ewing  retorted  by  wishing  to  know  '  how  many 
were  the   wives   of  Solomon?'    to    which   our 
friend,  truthfully  though  somewhat  evasively  re- 
plied, 'O,  very  many!'    Finally,  the  conversation 
turned;  the  children  were  sternly  ordered  to  keep 
back  and  Ewing  began  at  one  of  the  stock  ques- 
tions,   'How  many  children  have  you?'     This 
was  the  signal  for  three  or  four  youths  to  come 
in  and  make  their  manners.    It  was  curious.    One 
youth  had  met  us  at  the  city  gate,  had  ridden 
and  talked  with  us,  but  he  must  needs  be  pre- 
sented and  make  his  manners  just  the  same.     I 
suggested  I  had  my  camera  with  me,  so  we  went 
out  to  see  the  buildings.     In  the  court  was  the 
bath  house  where  every  one  bathes  for  each  serv- 
ice.    These  services  number  five  a  day,  so  the 
priests  at  any  rate  keep  clean— that  is,  hands  and 
feet.     The  end  of  the  court  was  occupied  by  the 
mosque.     One  half  of  it  I  send  you  in  the  en- 


I96  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

closed  photograph.  Note  the  many  different 
kinds  of  lamps — foreign  and  native — (kerosene 
oil  here  is  cheaper  than  in  San  Francisco)  the 
floor  felts  on  which  to  kneel,  the  huge  scrawl 
which  reads  '  Mohammed  is  his  prophet,'  the 
pulpit  in  the  corner,  the  Arabic  map  on  the  wall 
at  the  back  of  the  recess  or  chancel,  showing 
Arabia  at  the  centre  of  the  world  and  the  rest  of 
the  countries  grouped  on  the  circumference.  The 
tablets  on  the  wall  we  asked  them  to  read,  but 
that  was  too  hard  a  job.  To  their  relief  came  a 
sub-priest  in  the  crowd  and  interpreted  them.  I 
tried  to  have  the  priests  in  the  picture,  but  they 
declined,  saying  they  had  never  had  their  pictures 
taken  for  fear  that  the  pictures  might  be  wor- 
shipped when  the  originals  had  passed  away. 
We  returned  to  the  little  room  and  once  more  the 
tea  was  started  and  E  wing  was  duly  instructed  in  a 
few  of  the  Arabic  characters  and  then  led  into  the 
primer,  which  has  its  first  sentence  run  *  It  is 
wrong  to  worshiB__Buddha.'  Then  our  clothes 
caught  them  and  they^were  pacified  by  the  know- 
ledge of  the  cost  of  our  ulsters.  '  O,  do  you  know 
who  invented  the  photographic  business  .f^'  asked 
one  of  the  priests.  We  tried  to  rack  our  brains — 
German,  English,  French  or  further  back  ?  *  Well,' 
said  he,  Mt  was  known  to  Adam  and  Eve,  but 
after  the  flood  it  was  lost  till  Daniel's  time.'  We 
questioned  the  accuracy,  but  he  assured  us  that 
their  books  taught  that.  What  could  we  say  ? 
Finally,  at  1:30  (we  arrived  at  11  a.  m.)  din- 
ner was  announced,  served  in  the  large  room. 
We  took  the  two  chairs  of  honor  at  a  large  round 
black  lacquer  table.  The  others  did  the  regular 
thing  of  pushing,  hauling,  smiling,  gesticulating, 
striving  that  each  should  be  better  than  himself. 
A  perfect  farce — but  polite,  and  at  last  the  seven 
were  seated.  At  each  place  were  ivory  chop- 
sticks laid  on  bits  of  brown  paper,  a  saucer  and  a 


Life  and  Work  in  China  197 

porcelain  spoon  (somewhat  like  a  long-handled 
medicine  spoon)  filled  with  thick  Chinese  vine- 
gar.    This  is  the  universal  condiment.    All  meats 
are  dipped  in  it— and  it  does  serve  the  purpose  of 
neutralizing    some    flavors.     Immediately    were 
brought  in  and  placed  on  the  table  twelve  saucers 
filled    with    nuts,    in    the    shell    and    candied, 
almonds,  stewed  sweets,  jelly,  etc.     Our  dessert 
always  begins  a  feast.     The  nuts  are  left  on 
throughout.     Convenient  for  stifling  some  tastes ! 
At  once  the  host  rises,  takes  a  handful  of  nuts 
and  places  them  before  the  invited  guests.     This 
is  the  signal  to  fall  to.     Each  one  helps  his  neigh- 
bor and  himself  in  the  same  way.     Dishes  like 
pieces  of  jelly,  etc.,  are  eaten  by  dipping  into  the 
common  dish  with  the  chop-sticks.     Each  course 
as  it  comes  on  is  started  in  this  way  by  the  host. 
He  usually  sits  opposite  and  leans  across  the 
table.     The  other  priest  in  this  feast  sat  next  me 
and  assisted.     Perhaps  two  dishes  of  a  course 
will  be  thus  served  to  you.     You  are  then  ex- 
pected to  help  yourself  to  the  other  dishes,  or  re- 
plenish from  the  same  ones.     What  is  placed  on 
your  saucer  is  expected  to  be  at  once  removed. 
When   you  help  yourself,  you   convey  directly 
from  the  common   dish  to  your  mouth.     Nut- 
shells, fragments,  chicken  or  fish  bones,  etc.,  are 
dropped  on  the  brick  floor  or  simply  left  on  the 
table   around   the   one  dish  that  survives— your 
saucer.     One  can  imagine  the   litter.     Without 
disturbing  the   first   course,   the   second   course 
came  on— boiled  meats  and  chopped  vegetables, 
all  in  convenient  places  for  immediate  transfer- 
ence.    These  dishes  were  taken  off,  and  a  boiled 
duck  in  a  large  bowl  appeared.     The  meat  was 
tender  enough  to  fall  off  with  the  chop-sticks'  aid, 
and  a  great  piece,  skin  and  all  was  deposited  on 
my  plate.     By  this  time,  my  saucer  was  full— I 
couldn't  begin  to  eat  all  that  was  piled  thereon. 


198  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

So  the  host  called  for  water  and  using  one  of  the 
bits  of  paper,  he  cleaned  it  out  and  started  me  off 
once  more.  Then  came  four  dishes  of  sweets, 
let  him  who  can,  try  to  describe  them!  Even 
the  host  had  to  consult  his  red  paper  menu  to 
discover  their  identity.  Next,  a  boiled  fish,  head 
and  tail  sticking  out  of  the  bowl,  came  on.  Then 
chicken  stewed  with  onions.  I  had  counted 
twenty-three  dishes.  What  more  ?  The  crown 
of  the  feast  appeared — a  pewter  chafing  dish, 
with  a  meat  and  vegetable  stew.  My  joy  was 
complete  when  this  was  cleared  off,  and  the  end 
of  the  feast  announced  by  the  entrance  of  indi- 
vidual rice-bowls,  flanked  by  six  dishes  of  various 
stews,  including  one  of  sliced  sheep  intestines.  I 
did  my  best  but  could  eat  a  very  small  part  of 
the  rice.  Of  course,  everything  had  been  piled 
in  on  top  of  the  rice.  Thirty  dishes  was  the 
count  and  1  had  made  a  try  at  twenty-five  of 
them.  The  satisfaction  of  the  others  in  the  rice 
is  equalled  only  by  that  of  the  small  boy  before  a 
huge  dish  of  ice-cream.  With  one  hand  they 
lifted  the  bowl  and  with  the  other  shovelled  the 
rice  in  with  the  chop-sticks,  meantime  smacking 
their  lips  in  huge  delight.  Of  what  are  their 
stomachs  made!  With  all  this  food  went  con- 
versation, chief  was  concerning  the  eatables. 
Everything  was  discussed,  the  host  bringing  in 
his  red  paper  for  proof.  Next,  1  looked  up  and 
saw  foreign  lamps.  '  What  do  you  pay  for  oil  ?' 
was  the  result.  Said  one  of  them,  '  How  much 
is  your  salary?'  We  escaped  by  saying  it  de- 
pended upon  the  state  of  business  at  home. 
Alas,  that  it  does!  Then  we  talked  about  their 
adherents.  In  Paotingfu  are  two  mosques,  each 
with  some  tirty  tamihes."  VVTien  asked  if  their 
religion  was  all  over  China,  they  replied  that  not 
a  province,  county  or  district  escaped  them, 
though  the  largest  numbers  were  in  south  and 


Life  and  Work  in  China  199 

southwest  China.  By  the  way,  the  Chinese  say 
for  northeast,  northwest,  southeast,  southwest- 
east  north,  west  north,  east  south,  west  south. 
Then  too,  jokes  about  my  eating  were  con- 
stantly in  order.  Things  grew  personal  when 
one  broke  out  with  *  Pi  Mooshih  is  a  very  fine 
looking  man.'  Curiously  enough,  they  knew 
about  India  and  the  Mogul  Emperors.  They 
were  much  interested  when  1  said  that  1  had  seen 
the  tomb  of  the  most  famous  of  these  con- 
querors. Where  India  was,  they  had  no  idea. 
Never  a  map  did  they  possess.  Unconsciously, 
one  gave  a  prediction,  however.  Said  he,  'Who 
rules  in  India  now  ?    Is  it  Jesus  ? ' 

"  The  feast  over,  we  went  to  the  door,  took  a 
cup  of  water  and  washed  out  our  mouths  in  the 
yard,  and  adjourned  to  the  small  room  for  more 
tea  and  talk.  They  said  that  all  they  taught  in 
their  schools  was  Arabic  from  seven  to  ten  each 
day.  They  took  the  boys,  and  their  wives,  the 
girls  The  rest  of  the  schooling  was  in  the  Chi- 
nese schools.  As  for  foot-binding,  to  abohsh 
that  would  keep  their  girls  from  marriage,  so 
they  said  nothing,  though  they  did  not  approve 
of  the  custom.  Moslems  refuse  to  touch  wine. 
Said  they,  *  We  are  further  advanced  than  you. 
You  will  not  drink  it;  we  will  not  even  touch  it. 
'What  is  yeast?'  they  asked.  'Isn't  it  intoxi- 
cating?' 'What  does  it  taste  like?'  'Sour? 
'  Does  it  make  the  bread  sour  ? ' 

"  In  a  word  then,  what  do  the  Moslems  do  for 
China  ?  They  try  to  put  down  idolatry;  they  do 
make  for  a  little  cleanliness;  they  war  against 
drink,  and  they  teach  Arabic  Bible.  On  the  other 
side,  they  have  no  world  knowledge  and  cannot 
give  any.  They  bring  people  to  a  sealed  bible— 
not  the  open  Bible  to  the  people.  They  change 
the  lives  but  little,  for  little  is  done  against  evil 
practices    and    superstitions.      Above    all,    they 


200  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

bring,  teach  and  live  the  early  dawn  of  the  Old 
Testament  instead  of  the  full  sunshine  of  the  com- 
plete revelation  in  Jesus  Christ.  Here  in  Paotingfu, 
it  is  not  an  evangelizing  force.  It  is  a  family  that 
grows  mainly  as  the  generations  come  and  go. 
With  many  *  hows,'  we  took  our  leave  about  five 
o'clock  and  jolted  back  to  our  compound. 


"This  letter  was  being  written  Tuesday  evening, 
March  29,  1898,  when  it  was  interrupted  by  the 
arrival  of  Horace  Collins  Pitkin!  As  it  could  not 
be  completed  for  the  mail  which  went  that  night, 
it  has  had  to  lie  over  until  this  courier — two 
weeks'  delay.  Under  the  circumstances,  we  are 
sure  that  you  will  excuse  the  lapse  from  a 
monthly  letter." 

To  his  sister,  he  writes  on  May  9  of  his  at- 
tempts at  furniture-making  and  of  his  garden: 

*•  I  have  had  two  carpenters  at  work  for  three 
weeks.  They  first  made  axefrigjoratoiLin  a  week 
and  a  half.  Then  a  serving  table — then  odd  jobs 
— and  now  they  are  deep  in  making  a  travelling 
bureau  in  two  parts,  two  drawers  in  each  part, 
with  a  sliding  cover,  which  may  be  used  for  a 
writing  desk — of  my  own  design.  They  come 
at  6:30 — work  till  nine.  Have  breakfast  till  ten 
— work  till  one — go  to  sleep  till  four  and  work 
till  6:30.  Their  tools  are  primitive,  but  their 
dove-tailing  work  is  very  pretty.  But  they  have 
to  be  watched — every  nail  and  screw  counted 
out.  Their  tea-drinking  is  constant — so  one's 
presence  in  their  vicinity  is  a  discourager  to  lazi- 
ness—though it  takes  much  of  your  time.  Bad 
wood  goes  in  if  you  are  not  on  the  watch. 
Speaking    of    tools.     They    had    to    cut    some 


Life  and  Work  in  China  20  i 

grooves.     I  found  them   working  with  a  tool 
which  turned  out  to  be  one  of   my  steel  wire 
nails,  hammered  flat,  bent  up  and  sharpened  into 
a  very  respectable  gouge.     But  their  jig  saw  is 
the  funniest.     A  strip  of  bamboo  bent  round  to 
give  a  handle  and  spring.     A  bent  nail  through 
one  end  for  a  hook  and  a  piece  of  brass  wire 
thereto    attached   and   drawn   tight   around  the 
other  end.     Then  with  a  chisel,  nicks  are  cut  in 
the  front  of  the  stretched  wire,  and  the  saw  is 
done.     It  does  very  good  work.     With  soft  iron 
tools,  you  can  imagine  the  hours  of  sharpening 
required.     All    at  ten   cents   a   day.     Then   for 
boards.     To  get  an  inch  strip,  they  brmg  a  one 
and  one-half  inch  piece  that  is  warped  lengthwise 
and  proceed  to  plane  the  curve  off,  so  getting  a 
straight   inch  piece.     Of   course,   this   probably 
warps  again,  but  that  is  no  matter,  for  the  table 
is  made.     None  of  their  wood  is  well  seasoned. 
Their  poplar  wood  works  up  beautifully  with  a 
grain  like  maple.     They  have  very  hard  walnut, 
a  hard  but  coarse  grain  elm  and  the  soft  pine. 
My  work  is  being  done  in  maple. 

"Then  there  is  our  garden.  We  have  peas, 
early  corn,  cucumbers  and-T^ishes  up.  Early 
limas  had  worms  in  them.  Late  limas,  corn, 
etc.,  will  be  planted  soon.  A  lot  of  squash  is  m. 
You  see  we  want  to  get  some  peas  and  beans  be- 
fore we  go  to  the  shore.  Then  we  don't  want 
anything  till  we  return  in  September.  To  run  a 
garden  on  such  a  basis  is  difficult.  The  ground 
is  ridged  at  three  feet  intervals  and  drills  are  run 
between  the  ridges.  Then  irrigation  goes  on 
from  the  well  every  day.  That's  part  of  the 
work  of  our  coolie,  who  has  thus  turned  gar- 
dener. ,  ,   . 

"Had  a  thunder-storm  yesterday  and  it  was 
very  refreshing.  Rather  remarkable  for  this  time 
of  year.     The  weather  is  decidedly  warm  in  the 


202  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

day  though  the  nights  are  beautifully  cool.  The 
mornings  with  the  birds  chirping  around  in  the 
honeysuckle  and  in  the  fruit  treeSj  the  roses  just 
beginning  to  bloom,  and  a  curious  pseudo-damp- 
ness in  the  air,  carries  me  back  to  New  Hartford. 
A  gorgeous  bush  of  lilac  has  passed,  the  peach 
trees  have  lost  their  blossoms,  the  grapes  have 
large  leaves,  a  yellow,  scentless  rose  is  crammed 
with  blossoms,  a  lovely  red  native  rose  is  just 
opening  its  buds, — everything  looks  like  the 
United  States — except  no  grass,  to  speak  of — 
only  weeds.  No  daisies— no  buttercups — dande- 
lions though." 

Lest  any  should  think  the  new  home  was  in  a 
wilderness,  he  wrote  to  the  Pilgrim  Church  in  the 
spring  of  1898: 

"  The  country  around  about  is  not  a  vast,  tree- 
less plain.  Everywhere  are  scattered  small  mud 
villages  and  these  have  their  quota  of  trees, — 
mostly  mulberry  and  locust.  Also,  plenty  of 
family  walled  burying  grounds  fill  the  landscape. 
These  always  have  a  grove  of  coniferous  trees. 
In  fact,  if  you  see  in  the  distance  the  tops  of 
trees,  it's  ninety-nine  chances  that  under  them 
repose  generations  of  dead.  So,  though  the 
plain  may  have  long  ranges  of  treeless  expanse, 
yet  the  horizon  and  much  of  the  foreground  is 
well  broken  up  with  the  green  trees.  In  winter, 
we  go  walking  outside  of  our  compound.  Don't 
take  the  roads,  for  their  age  has  depressed  most 
of  them  far  below  the  fields.  On  all  sides,  the 
ground  is  one  vast  garden,  broken  up  by  innum- 
erable ditches  and  ridges,  for  irrigating  use  from 
the  wells  scattered  about.  The  larch  and  cedar 
trees  are  still  green.  Even  other  trees  hold  their 
leaves  till  very  late  fall.     On  all  sides,  wheat  just 


Life  and  Work  in  China  203 

springing  up  keeps  a  slight  trace  of  green.  Few 
people  are  around — they  are  trying  to  keep  warm. 
The  air  is  bracing — the  sun  delicious.  In  March, 
you  begin  to  hear  the  well-windlasses  going. 
That  means  spring.  It  is  just  as  beautiful  out- 
doors as  at  home — only  no  grass.  The  long 
views  are  soon  cut  off,  for  all  hands  turn  out 
from  every  mud  hut, — wadded  garments  vanish, 
and  in  many  cases,  nature's  garments  are  the  only 
visible  ones  remaining,  while  all  turn  to  at  setting 
long  lake  rushes  in  the  ground,  making  lofty 
wind  breaks,  or  weaving  them  together  in  regular 
patterns,  quickly  marking  out  boundary  lines 
with  such  fences.  The  transformation  is  com- 
plete— rapidly  under  irrigation,  the  wheat  and 
garden  vegetables,  peas,  beans,  beets,  onions, 
radishes,  lettuce,  cabbage,  cucumbers,  etc.,  etc., 
spring  up,  until  it  is  delightful  to  walk  about,  for 
there  is  such  a  contrast  to  winter.  One  wonders 
where  so  many  people  could  possibly  have  hiber- 
nated. So  in  spite  of  drought — now  this  is  a  pic- 
ture of  what  you  see  all  around  the  Compound. 
Inside  our  walls,  our  three  vegetable  gardens  are 
thriving — roses  are  in  bloom — especially  a  native 
monthly  red  rose  that  is  simply  luxuriant,  bloom- 
ing from  May  until  November  or  December. 
Stretches  of  grass  plots  are  more  weeds  than 
anything,  but  out  from  these  bloom  forth  morn- 
ing-glories galore  and  various  varieties  of  wild 
flowers.  So  you  see  we  are  not  in  a  desolate 
region." 

In  the  summer  the  family  went  to  Pei-tai-ho 
again.  The  language  study  could  be  continued 
there  and  the  place,  which  was  on  the  seacoast, 
sixty  miles  north  of  Tientsin,  was  a  source  of 
new  life  to  the  tired  workers,  who  were  able  to 


204  ^  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

gather  there  for  a  few  weeks  in  the  summer. 
Pitkin  wrote  gratefully  of  the  blessing  of  Pei- 
tai-ho  in  this  respect: 

"  But  what  does  Pei-tai-ho  mean  to  the  North 
China  missionary  community  ?  It  means  bodily 
vigor.  For  years,  the  only  sanitarium  in  North 
China  has  been  the  Western  Hills,  twelve  miles 
west  of  Peking.  But  comparatively  few  could 
go  there,  except  from  Peking  and  Tungcho. 
And  imagine!  One  Sunday  this  year,  the  ther- 
mometer there  was  109  in  the  shade — in  the  house 
— 119  on  the  porch  and  146  in  the  sun — and  this 
is  a  summer  sanitarium!  Naturally  when  Rocky 
Point  was  found,  swept  by  sea  breezes,  free  from 
all  disease  and  cool  all  summer,  every  one  who 
could  borrow  or  steal  enough  to  put  up  a  house 
has  hastened  so  to  do,  and  sends  at  least  the  wives 
and  children  every  summer.  With  the  bathing, 
lovely  hills  not  far  off,  green  grass,  flowers  and 
freedom,  Pei-tai-ho  means  heaUh  of  body  and 
saving  of  many  a  missionary's  life.  It  is  true 
economy  to  spend  money  at  Pei-tai-ho. 

"  Yet  with  this  comes  the  recuperation  of  men- 
tal and  spiritual  power.  Consider  many  a  mis- 
sionary child  growing  up  in  a  far  interior  station 
with  one  or  two  children — sometimes  none — for 
companionship,  dwarfed  thereby  into  maturity 
when  only  a  child.  From  one  year's  end  to 
another,  just  the  same!  Imagine  that  child  spend- 
ing every  summer  with  eighty  to  one  hundred 
children,  attending  kindergarten  and  deriving 
enough  comradeship-ozone  to  last  through  the 
winter  months!" 


Of  the  spiritual  value  of  this  gathering  of  mis- 
sionaries from  isolated  and  lonely  stations,   he 


Life  and  Work  in  China  205 

wrote  to  Dr.  Smith,  just  before  leaving  in  the  late 
summer  for  Paotingfu: 


''While  Pei-tai-ho  has  increased  her  numbers 
this  summer,  for,  counting  all  settlements,  at  least 
250  adults  must  have  been  here,  besides  children 
innumerable — more  definite  action  has  been  taken 
to  make  of  use  the  extraordinarily  unique  situa- 
tion. Missionaries  from  six  weeks  south  of 
Tientsin  in  Honan,  from  three  weeks  north  of 
Peking  in  Mongolia,  are  here,  while  every  spot 
between  these  extremes  is  pretty  sure  to  be  rep- 
resented. For  three  days,  morning  and  after- 
noon, a  conference  was  held  on  mission  meth- 
ods. The  broadest  and  deepest  problems  were 
taken  up,  opened  by  two  leaders  and  then  thor- 
oughly discussed.  The  sessions  were  of  intense 
interest  and  of  great  value.  The  result  undoubt- 
edly will  be  that  more  definite  plans  will  event- 
ually mature,  until  in  years  to  come,  a  regular 
'Northfield'  will  be  an  annual  feature  of  Pei- 
tai-ho.  Another  step  in  a  right  direction  was 
taken  when  one  day  was  set  aside  as  a  '  Quiet 
Day  '  with  sessions,  morning,  afternoon  and  even- 
ing. To  many,  it  brought  a  great  blessing.  We 
have  suffered  thus  far  in  a  little  cornstalk-roofed 
hut,  using  such  humble  means  for  purposes  of 
worship.  To  have  150  people  packed  into  such 
a  mud-walled  affair  has  presented  its  ridiculous 
side  to  comparatively  well-housed  people.  With 
a  subscription  list  already  touching  1,500  taels, 
the  Executive  Committee  will  put  up  a  thoroughly 
first-class  building  to  be  used  as  an  Assembly 
Hall,  Church,  Kindergarten  room,  etc.  The  proba- 
ble cost  will  not  be  under  2,500  taels.  This  will 
be  used  by  the  Chinese  as  well  for  their  services. 
.  .  .  A  fleet  of  British  gunboats  has  been  off 
shore  the  past  two  days.     Now  the  boats  have 


2o6  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

started  northward.  Every  one  is  in  the  dark  as 
to  what  it  is  all  about.  The  Chinese,  of  course, 
are  immensely  excited.  My  man  even  asked  me 
if  there  was  war.     .     .     ." 

The  first  letter  in  the  fall  to  the  '*  Pilgrims  at 
home"  dealt  with  the  collapse  of  the  Reform 
Movement  and  the  return  to  active  authority  of 
the  Dowager  Empress: 

"Before  we  left  the  shore,  we  had  served  up 
to  us  the  first  act  of  the  tragico-comedy  of  the 
Emperor  of  China's  death.  On  a  Friday  morn- 
ing we  heard  by  wire  that  the  Emperor  had  been 
poisoned  by  the  Dowager.  All  rail  and  wire  con- 
nection between  Peking  and  Tientsin  had  been 
closed  since  Thursday  morning.  That  is  all  that 
we  heard.  We  kept  quiet,  but  in  the  afternoon, 
the  servants  heard  the  news  and  were  badly 
scared.  As  I  was  rushing  into  the  dining-room 
in  the  evening  to  get  a  book,  to  my  surprise  I 
found  servants  and  teacher  lined  up  waiting  for 
a  *talky-talk'  with  me.  They  anxiously  asked 
what  we  had  heard  and  suggested  speedy  depar- 
ture for  Tientsin,  lest  the  soldiers  should  come 
and  kill  us  all.  They  said  that  even  if  a  foreign 
boat  should  come  and  take  us  away,  they  would 
be  left  to  be  killed.  Their  anxiety  for  our  safety 
was  easily  explained.  And  such  fear  for  them- 
selves was  not  groundless.  Chinese  soldiers  are 
little  better  than  a  mob,  and  the  Chinese  have  a 
hard  time  when  they  come  around.  However, 
in  time  of  trouble,  the  shore  would  be  very  safe, 
for  the  railroad  is  five  miles  away  and  all  troops 
would  pass  through  without  stopping.   j\s  for 

the  peapkijinjhe  viiicigp^^^T221iLii5-'^^^^^"g  '^^' 
that  wouldl-bil^ilitBzexcipIiMal^^  one 

has  said,  let  them  have  enough  to  eat  and  they 


Life  and  Work  in  China  207 

care_naL:wJi£ther  an  African  savage  sits  on  the 
Jhrone,„,  Asfor~a~"changg~Df-Tiyiiasly,  maybe  ~at 
some  distant  time  tliey  would  hear  of  it.  -Except 
when  incited  by  rulers,  priests  or  love  of  loot,  the 
t"ountrv~p^opfe'^e  no^tat  'ait-tfoublcsomc. — ^fhe^ 
Chinese  soloier  is  the^rtirie~ffem'^w4Tit±-to  run 
away.  Well,  we  waited  in  some  suspense,  for 
the  gates  of  Peking  were  locked  and  none  knew 
what  was  going  on  there.  Both  the  British  and 
the  German  ministers,  who  were  at  Pei-tai-ho, 
started  at  once  for  the  capital.  It  would  have  to 
be  a  horseback  ride  from  Tientsin.  Later  reports 
show  that  but  for  the  absence  of  the  English  min- 
ister, the  whole  crisis  would  have  been  tided 
over.  Saturday  evening,  some  one  from  Tientsin 
brought  the  news  that  the  Emperor  was  alive, 
but  that  the  Dowager  had  seized  the  reins  of 
government.  As  for  the  closing  of  gates,  stop- 
ping of  railroad  and  telegraph,  these  were  to 
effect  the  capture  of  the  head  adviser  of  the  Em- 
peror. He  ran  for  his  life,  however,  and  saved 
his  head.  Of  course,  you  have  read  all  about  this 
in  the  newspapers — in  fact,  know  far  more  than 
we  of  the  complicated  situation.  Still,  our  point 
of  view  may  be  interesting. 

"The  next  week,  we  saw  that  everything  was 
quiet,  so  went  up  to  Peking.  Our  road  from  the 
station  to  the  compound  in  the  centre  of  the  city, 
was  at  least  six  miles.  For  some  two  miles  of  it, 
we  passed  through  an  immense  crowd,  making 
us  feel  as  one  supposes  the  President  of  the 
United  States  on  Inauguration  Day  feels.  The 
road  was  thoroughly  policed,  however,  by  men 
in  citizens'  clothes,  with  long  whips  up  their 
loose  sleeves.  We  spent  a  few  days  in  Peking, 
and  then  went  to  Tungcho — twelve  miles.  Mrs. 
Pitkin  and  baby  took  a  sedan-chair  and  I  rode  a 
donkey.  Our  object  in  going  was  but  partly  ac- 
complished, for  instead  of  us  both  taking  our 


2o8  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

first  examination  in  Chinese  before  the  Commit- 
tee there,  I  only  could  do  it,  as  baby  caught  the 
grip  and  Mrs.  Pitkin  was  occupied  with  him  at 
the  hour  of  the  examination.  On  our  return,  we 
came  back  over  the  famous  *  stone  ro'ad ' — twelve 
miles  long,  made  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  wide, 
built  of  stones  tlve  or  six  feet  long,  two  feet  wide 
and  a  foot  or  more  thick.  Considering  the  dis- 
tance that  the  stone  must  have  come,  the  age  of 
the  road  and  the  tremendous  traffic  it  has  had 
pass  over  it,  the  building  stands  out  certainly  as 
a  wonder.  Tungcho  is  at  the  head  of  naviga- 
tion of  the  Peiho  River,  so  from  the  first  every- 
thing has  come  from  Tientsin  to  Peking  via  the 
river,  Tungcho  and  the  road.  Alas,  now  for 
Tungcho.  The  railroad  at  first  planned  to  make 
it  the  terminus,  instead  of  Peking.  All  surveys 
were  made — when  suddenly  the  boatmen  arose 
and  compelled  the  city  fathers  to  revoke  every- 
thing. Consequently  the  railroad  went  by  another 
way  to  Peking,  and  now  hundreds  of  boats  lie 
idle  while  Tungcho  with  all  its  trade  departed  is 
on  the  verge  of  depopulation.  'Those  who  will 
not  move  with  progress,  must  be  crushed,'  ap- 
plies here  in  China  even,  on  very  few  but  refresh- 
ing occasions." 

Little  did  Pitkin  and  his  friends  realize  what 
this  political  overturning  would  mean  to  him, 
and  to  scores  of  other  missionaries  and  thousands 
of  the  Chinese  Christians. 

In  December,  1898,  he  took  his  first  country  trip 
with  Mr.  Ewing  and  one  of  the  native  preachers, 
regarding  which  he  wrote  to  the  Pilgrim  Church  : 

"A  few  weeks  ago,  I  took  a  trip  around  our 
part  of  the  Chinese  field  and  visited  eight  of  our 


Life  and  Work  in  China  209 

ten  outstations,  and  as  I  came  to  have  my  first 
glimpse  of  our  friends,  I  want  to  give  you  all  a 
first  glimpse  too.  When  you  knov/  them,  you 
can  more  easily  pray  for  them.  This  time,  let 
me  give  a  very  general  preface  to  my  trip.  Our 
next  letter  ought  to  give  details  in  daily  form. 
Mr.  Ewing,  Meng  (our  younger  pastor),  and  I 
started  Saturday  morning,  December  3d  and 
reached  home  after  our  circuit,  Saturday  evening, 
December  17th.  This  meant  a  circle  of  some 
200  miles  in  length,  but  as  a  Chinese  cart  makes 
at  the  best  no  more  than  thirty-five  miles  a  day, 
200  miles  assume  an  importance  not  known  of  in 
the  States.  Let  me  take  up  the  different  general 
points. 

**  ist.  The  scenery.  The  gamut  was  run  from 
low  level  prairie-like  plains,  miles  in  extent,  to 
high  mountains  with  villages  nestling  at  their 
base.  Hamlets,  with  mud-walled  houses  and 
mud  roofs  predominated.  Yet  in  the  mountains, 
stone  houses  with  high  battlements,  cement 
roofs  and  red  painted  projecting  window  and 
door  verandas  and  stone  gargoyles,  took  one 
back  to  Palestine  or  Switzerland.  Level  plains 
gave  way  to  rocky  paths  and  fiat  streets  to  stony, 
crooked  up  and  down,  old  Boston-like  lanes.  In 
places,  we  passed  through  miles  of  pear  and  per- 
simmon orchards,  or  crossed  rivers  whose  high 
tide  beds  in  their  sweep  and  destructiveness, 
have  a  parallel  in  the  Missouri  River.  People, 
also  differed.  The  slow,  languid  plain  people — 
the  dark,  sturdy,  quick  foot-hill  people  and  the 
eager,  curious  crowd  of  the  market  town.  Only 
a  few  miles  in  all  from  Paotingfu,  yet  to  the 
country  people,  it  was  unfortunate  that  we  spoke 
a  'city'  and  not  their  little  district  dialect. 
Travelled  townsmen  who  had  gone  to  the  Fu 
city  (Paotingfu)  understood  us  well — the  others 
with  difficulty. 


210  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

"2d.  Our  stopping  places.  At  our  outsta- 
tions,  we  had  either  chapels  or  homes  of  the 
Christians  in  which  to  stay.  But  often  on  the 
road,  we  must  needs  stop  at  inns,  and  these  ran 
from  the  palatial  with  brick  tloors  and  papered 
walls  to  places  that  a  man  in  the  United  Mates 
wouldn't  put  his  horse  in.  One  place  had  had 
lately  a  foot  of  water  on  its  floors;  the  bricks  of 
the  bed  were  reeking,  and  the  mud  walls  were 
mildewed.  It  was  rather  hard  on  one  of  our 
Christian  families  to  make  its  members  crowd 
into  one  room  in  order  to  give  us  the  other,  es- 
pecially as  the  family  consisted  of  two  brothers, 
their  wives  and  children;  a  large  number  for  one 
small  brick  bed.     Oh,  but 

' '  3d.  The  Church  members.  God  only  knows 
how  these  have  come  into  the  light.  As  I  looked 
at  the  heathen  crowds  about  us,  I  kept  asking 
myself,  '  Have  our  Christians  come  from  this  ma- 
terial ? '  They  surely  have,  and  only  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  could  such  a  thing  be. 
With  almost  nothing  worldly  to  gain,  with  per- 
secution awaiting  them,  little  groups  here  and 
there  stand  for  Jesus  to-day.  One  man  alone  in 
a  yard  with  twenty-one  relatives  all  hating  the 
doctrine;  a  family  alone  in  a  village,  yet  by  their 
joy  and  love  attracting  men  from  all  around  to 
come  and  ask  about  the  doctrine;  another  man 
giving  up  in  a  village  a  lucrative  business — in 
incense  selling,  now  to  be  rapidly  becoming  a 
pauper.  So  it  goes — these  dear  Church  members, 
our  friends, — friends  in  fellowship  with  Pilgrim 
Church. 

"4th.  One  of  our  reasons  for  going  out  was 
to  ordain  deacons  at  a  number  of  the  outstations. 
This  is  the  first  time  that  such  men  have  been 
appointed.  And  these  men  ?  The  old  man  who 
still  has  a  fierce  temper,  that  gets  him  into 
trouble;  the  young  man  with  wealth,  but  n^ar  to 


Life  and  Work  in  China  21 1 

being  like  Martha,  the  strong  man  who  at  a  crisis 
in  our  talking  with  his  fellows,  steps  in  and  says 
'  opportunity  makes  the  man  and  man  makes  the 
opportunity;'  the  fearful  saint  who  blurts  out 
after  the  words  to  deacons  are  given  '  I  can't  do 
it — choose  another,'  and  can  hardly  be  brought 
back;  the  man,  German  in  look,  with  a  carriage 
like  a  Scottish  reformer,  silent  but  forceful — 
these  are  the  leaders  of  the  little  flocks  put  under 
their  care.  Pray  for  their  anointing  for  the  work. 
"5th.  Another  reason  for  our  going  was  to 
join  in  the  Lord's  Supper  with  these  brethren. 
And  what  diverse  conditions  were  we  in.  Here 
in  a  nice,  clean  chapel  with  a  little  Christian 
group  of  some  twelve,  while  three  men  sat  on  a 
bench — three  who  had  never  before  seen  a  for- 
eigner. There  in  a  little  private  room  of  the 
house,  the  women  sitting  on  the  brick  bed;  the 
Church  members  quietly  sitting  assembled  in  the 
next  room,  while  under  the  flickering  candle  over 
the  table  at  our  side  were  the  bread  and  wine — 
the  bread  on  a  saucer,  the  wine  in  a  Chinese  tea- 
cup— but  the  same,  dear  friends,  for  a'  that.  Or, 
again,  we  were  sitting  out  in  a  yard,  the  elements 
on  a  little  table  at  our  feet.  Christian  members  at 
each  side  on  benches,  while  from  sixty  to  eighty 
Chinese  men,  women  and  children  completed  the 
circle  in  front,  sitting  on  the  ground  or  on  corn 
bundles,  and  on  the  roofs  of  houses  or  over  gar- 
den walls  curious  persons  found  solace.  Amidst 
all  the  noise  and  confusion,  the  elements  were 
passed.  Or  lastly,  it  was  in  a  room  with  two  old 
people  as  partakers  while  a  crowd  of  heathen 
quietly  watched  the  solemn  spectacle." 

This  was  not  the  last  experience  which 
Pitkin  and  Meng  were  to  share  and  it  will  be 
well  to  quote  from  the  first  letter  of  1899  to  the 


212  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Church,   Pitkin's    reference   to    Meng's   ordina- 
tion: 

"  The  first  missionary  to  travel  through  these 
parts  was  W.  C.  Burns — an  English  Presbyterian 
— who  died  in  1867.  He  stopped  at  a  little  town 
fifty  miles  south  of  here  to  sell  books.  His 
reception  was  not  very  cordial,  though  some 
volumes  were  bought.  A  few  years  later,  Mr. 
Isaac  Pierson  of  our  Board  came  to  Paotingfu  and 
really  opened  permanent  work.  One  day,  one 
of  the  helpers  happened  to  meet  a  man  who  evi- 
dently was  travelling  north.  On  inquiry,  the 
man  said  he  was  going  to  Peking  to  buy  some 
books  like  those  which  they  at  his  home  had 
some  years  before  bought,  bearing  the  Peking 
Congregational  Press  imprint.  Great  was  his 
surprise  when  informed  that  those  same  books 
could  be  got  in  Paotingfu.  The  man  was  brought 
to  Mr.  Pierson  and  turned  out  to  be  the  head 
Christian  at  this  little  town  visited  by  Mr.  Burns. 
That  man  was  Meng's  father,  who,  a  staunch 
Christian,  though  an  ignorant  man  and  poor,  for 
he  was  nothing  but  an  itinerant  barber,  brought 
up  these  boys  who  now  are  two  of  our  strongest 
men  in  the  whole  mission.  What  hath  God 
wrought!  As  for  this  particular  Meng.  He  is 
deeply  spiritual.  He  believes  in  prayer.  One 
ought  to  hear  him  tell  of  his  being  lost  in  the 
mountains  and  of  his  belief  that  rescue  came 
through  prayer.  Mr.  Ewing  started  out  with 
him  to  buy  some  garments  and  he  said  to  Mr. 
Ewing's  surprise,  *  A  moment,  please — let  us 
have  a  word  of  prayer.'  He  is  a  brainy  man. 
Mr.  H.  P.  Beach,  who  taught  him  at  Tungcho, 
says  he  would  be  among  the  first  two  or  three 
scholars  in  any  class  of  a  college  in  the  United 
States.     He  is  well  informed  in  world  affairs  and 


Life  and  Work  in  China  213 

as  for  his  religious  training,  his  knowledge  of  the 
English  Bible  is  superb.  He  has  a  rare  woman 
for  a  wife — one  who  was  almost  a  daughter  to 
Mrs.  Sheffield  in  Tungcho  and  is  a  great  excep- 
tion to  most  of  our  helpers'  wive^.  who  have  had 
a  general  school  training,  but  not  the  life  in  a  for- 
eign home  that  implants  in  them  what  we  esteem 
the  necessities  of  decent  Christian  living.  Now 
look  at  the  first  picture,  it  was  taken  last  winter 
in   front   of  Meng's  two  rooms.     The  baby  is 

*  Mu  ti '  (moo   dee,   accent  on  second  syllable) 

*  love  God,'  named  after  D.  L.  Moody." 

In  the  spring,  the  railroad  came  to  Paotingfu, 
but  even  in  advance  of  the  railroad  the  spirit  of 
progress  which  the  reactionary  purposes  of  the 
Empress  had  not  checked,  and  with  which  it 
may  be  believed  within  rather  narrow  Chinese 
limits,  she  at  first  tepidly  sympathized,  led  to  a 
great  improvement  of  the  mail  service.  Pitkin 
writes  in  a  personal  letter  to  Dr.  Mills  on  March 
3d: 

'*  Here  goes  the  first  letter  via  rapid  transit  to 
Pilgrim  Church,  and  it  is  to  fall  into  your  hands 
— in  fact,  it  is  to  be  a  personal  letter  entirely. 
You  have  been  seeing  the  public  epistles  all 
along,  but  we  have  not  had  a  chance  before  this 
to  answer  your  letter  of  October  13,  1898.  So 
we  take  this  opportunity  just  when  we  are  feel- 
ing so  proud  over  this  new  connection  with  the 
outside  world.  We  were  informed  yesterday 
that  mail  will  be  carried  daily  between  Peking 
and  here,  Tientsin  and  here.  We  had  hoped  for 
a  weekly  service — but  a  daily  quite  dazzles  us. 
You  really  don't  know  what  it  means — to  be 
suddenly  transferred  from  a  three  days'  journey 


214  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

to  a  short  trip  of  eight  and  one-half  hours.  We 
certainly  are  pretty  closely  attached  to  civilization. 
The  railroad  runs  down  here  from  a  point  on  the 
main  line  between  Peking  and  Tientsin — the  point 
being  the  station  next  to  Peking.  From  Tientsin 
to  that  point  is  about  eighty  miles — from  there  to 
Paotingfu  is  about  loo  miles — so  it  is  i8o  miles 
by  rail  from  here  to  Tientsin.  The  Paotingfu  line  is 
as  yet  in  the  hands  of  the  engineer  department, 
but  they  run  a  combination  train  each  way  once 
a  day.  The  station  is  west  of  the  city,  some  two 
miles  from  us.  We  went  to  Tientsin  week  be- 
fore last  to  have  some  dentistry  done  and  find  a 
servant.  It  was  rising  at  4  a.  m.,  starting  at  five, 
and  feeling  our  way  to  the  station.  At  1 1 :  1 5  we 
were  at  the  main  line,  were  soon  aboard  a  fast 
train  and  were  in  Tientsin  at  2:45.  Coming 
back  it  is  a  seven  to  six  trip, — long  for  a  small 
boy,  when  the  cars  are  unheated  and  have  only 
the  crudest  conveniences.  We  can,  though,  get 
warmed  up  in  the  brake  van,  where  the  train 
hands  have  a  stove.  From  here,  the  work  is 
being  rapidly  pushed  southward,  and  they  hope 
to  complete  the  1,000  miles  to  Hankow  in  two 
years.  This  then  will  form  the  trunk  line  of 
China.  We  are  really  very  glad  that  we  have 
had  a  year  or  more  of  the  stage-coach  (or  some- 
thing slower)  for  now  rapid  transit  will  mean  so 
much  more  to  us.  No  more  a  six  weeks'  mail  to 
come  in  a  batch — deluging  you  in  one  fell  swoop, 
followed  up  by  a  very  Sahara  of  absent  letters 
another  six  weeks.  We  will  at  least  halve  the 
time  required  to  get  an  answer  from  Pang 
Chuang,  only  200  miles  south  of  us,  for  it  used 
to  take  three  to  five  days  to  Tientsin,  then  a  wait 
for  a  courier  to  Pang  Chuang,  then  five  days 
there — another  wait — a  reply  written — return 
trip;  just  about  a  month  for  a  reply  from  a  point 
200  miles  away.     Now  it  will  be  two  weeks. 


Life  and  Work  in  China  215 

"  Photos  also  are  in  process  of  printing.  You 
can  imagine  how  much  it  means  when  we  had  to 
print  ourselves  more  than  150  copies  in  connec- 
tion with  the  '  Ordination  series.'  Still,  we  think 
it  is  truly  work  for  the  Lord. 

**  Although  the  Empress  issues  her  edicts  of 
toleration,  etc.,  still  we  keep  having  cases  of  per- 
secution. Just  now  a  rather  serious  one  has 
broken  out  in  Chi  Chi,  and  our  elder  pastor  has 
gone  down  with  our  visiting  cards  (in  China, 
signs  of  attorneyship)  to  see  to  the  matter." 

A  letter  of  the  day  preceding  to  Dr.  Smith 
refers  to  the  railroad: 

"  The  world  does  move  and  Paotingfu  with  it. 
We  have  been  holding  ourselves  in  with  joy  at  the 
thought  of  a  weekly  mail  via  the  new  railroad— a 
mail  in  eight  and  one-half  hours  to  Tientsin 
versus  three  days  by  boat  or  on  foot.  The  news 
came  the  other  day  that  we  were  to  have  a  daily 
service.  It  seems  too  good  to  be  true.  But  to- 
day as  we  came  out  of  prayer-meeting  the  post- 
ofihce  coolie,  one  of  our  Church  members,  came 
and  told  us  that  the  first  bag  goes  out  to-morrow 
morning.  He  was  in  a  hurry  to  take  it  to  the 
post-office,  but  as  Mr.  Ewing  and  Miss  Gould 
wanted  to  write  a  'first  letter,'  he  agreed  to 
wait  half  an  hour.  So  this  hasty  scrawl  to  you 
announcing  the  glad  event  of  our  release  into 
civilization.  We  are  proud  of  and  as  happy  over 
it  as  though  it  were  a  first  baby;  yet  it  is  merely 
a  first  mail.  It  means  for  us  no  more  batches  of 
six  weeks'  mail  coming  in  one  lump— a  combina- 
tion that  happens  not  more  than  once  in  a  year. 
We  are  glad  to  have  had  a  year  and  a  half  of  the 
'three  days"  regime,  but  we  know  now  how  to 
appreciate  Western  methods.     The  Chinese  prov- 


2i6  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

erb  for  slow  but  sure  is  '  pu  pa  man,  chih  pa 
chan  ' — *  fear  not  to  go  slowly,  only  fear  to  stand 
still.'  It  has  been  a  slow  traveller,  this  railroad, 
but  'tis  sure,  and  we  are  sure  of  it  also." 

And  several  days  later,  a  longer  letter  to  Dr. 
Smith  deals  with  his  country  trip,  the  railroad, 
and  also  the  signs  of  disturbance  which  were 
troubling  the  missionaries,  far  more,  alas,  than 
they  troubled  the  over-confident  diplomats  in 
Peking: 

"  The  winter  has  been  a  peculiar  one  for  us  in 
many  respects.  We  reached  home  the  first  week 
in  November,  but  found  that  our  building  took 
us  into  December,  the  cold  weather  hindering 
considerably.  Then  Mr.  Ewing,  Meng  II,  Mu 
Shih  and  I  went  into  the  country  for  fifteen  days, 
managing  to  visit  eight  of  the  eleven  outstations 
and  explore  new  territory  to  the  south  with  a 
view  to  opening  up  new  work  as  soon  as  money 
could  be  obtained.  The  trip  was  a  grand  success 
and  enabled  Mr.  Ewing,  as  well  as  myself  to  gain 
under  the  tuition  of  our  valued  co-laborer,  a  bird's- 
eye  view  of  the  Paotingfu  out-work.  In  addition, 
it  has  put  me  in  touch  with  a  very  large  proportion 
of  our  Church  members.  .  .  .  Though  I  had 
a  little  foreign  food  along  as  a  safeguard,  I  found 
the  Chinese  food  agreed  with  me  very  well  and  I 
managed  to  hobble  along  by  the  carts  for  fairly 
long  distances.  .  .  .  Our  work  the  last 
month  or  two  has  been  rather  broken  up  by 
reason  of  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  competent 
help.  The  railroad's  arrival  changed  the  situation 
and  two  weeks  ago,  urged  on  by  needed  den- 
tistry, we  took  a  flying  trip  to  Tientsin  and 
secured    sufficient  help  to  tide  us   over.     You 


Life  and  Work  in  China  217 

might  have  enjoyed  seeing  me  previously  bend- 
ing over  the  washtub,  while  Mrs.  Pitkin  posed  as 
lady-ironer!  After  three  weeks  of  it,  we  made 
up  our  minds,  the  railroad  came  and  we  went. 
Everything  comes  to  a  missionary.  At  Tung- 
cho,  last  autumn,  I  took  my  first  examination 
under  the  care  of  Dr.  Sheffield  and  Miss  Miner. 

*'.  .  .  Word  comes  from  one  of  our  best 
stations,  Chi  Chi,  that  much  opposition  has 
broken  out  and  that  the  lives  of  our  student 
helper  there  and  of  prominent  members,  like- 
wise, have  been  seriously  threatened.  Meng  I 
has  gone  to  investigate. 

**.  .  .  You  may  be  interested  to  see  some 
of  the  pictures  taken  at  the  time  of  the  ordination 
of  Meng  II.  The  set  forms  a  series  of  scenes  in  the 
never  to  be  forgotten  gathering.  I  have  num- 
bered them  in  order.  They  come  rather  late  in  the 
day,  but  it  was  impossible  to  finish  pictures  at 
Pei-tai-ho  because  of  the  dampness.  To  be  really 
satisfactory,  all  preparing  of  pictures  must  be  done 
by  one's  self,  for  the  Treaty  Port  photographers 
are  but  poor  workmen.  You  may  be  interested 
to  know  that  these  form  part  of  a  batch  of  over 
150  pictures  that  Mrs.  Pitkin  and  l.were  atone 
time  this  winter  working  over.  It  is  missionary 
work — we  enjoy  it  and  rejoice  in  it.  We  only 
hope  that  visitors  to  14  Beacon  Street,  who  may 
be  interested  in  North  China,  may  be  helped  by 
seeing  these  scenes  and  hearing  of  them  from  an 
eyewitness.  Mr  Lowrie,  of  the  North  Suburb, 
and  Mr.  Whiting,  of  Peking,  in  February,  made  a 
trip  of  600  li  to  Shun  Te  Fu,  south  by  southwest 
from  here,  with  an  eye  to  opening  a  new  Presby- 
terian station.  No  one  has  much  hope  that  such 
expectation  will  be  soon  realized.  We  hear 
from  Pilgrim  Church,  Cleveland,  of  the  blessed 
winter  of  work  they  are  having.  Would  that 
every  missionary  might  have  the  privilege  of  such 


2i8  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

a  Church  back  of  them!  I  am  informed  that  this 
railroad  expects  to  reach  Hankow,  i,ooo  miles 
from  Peking,  in  two  years  and  a  half.  No  matter 
what  lines  may  be  built  direct  from  Tientsin  to 
Shanghai  and  to  East  Shantung,  this  Peking- 
Paotingfu-Hankow  line  will  be  the  trunk  line  for 
North  China.  We  are  glad  that  we  had  a  year's 
experience  of  the,  so  to  speak,  stage-coach 
regime.  Possibly,  you  may  rejoice  that  your  lot 
was  not  that  which  will  be  sure  to  fall  to  future 
visitors  of  North  China  work — that  of  sitting 
prosaically  in  a  rapid  transit  apparatus.  A  litter, 
or  cart  trip,  is  really  worth  the  remembrance — 
likewise  a  boat  journey." 

This  reference  to  his  appreciation  of  the  value 
of  his  relationship  to  the  Pilgrim  Church  was  not 
perfunctory.  The  Church  calendar  for  April  9, 
1899,  contains  the  note: 

"Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pitkin  in  a  letter  received  last 
week,  enclosed  four  pledge  cards,  two  for  be- 
nevolence and  two  for  the  support  of  the  Church, 
with  checks  in  payment  of  the  pledges  in  full  for 
this  year,  the  pledges  aggregating  over  $200. 
It  is  our  custom  to  send  to  our  missionaries  all  our 
printed  matter,  and  these  pledges  came  as  a  re- 
sponse to  the  reception  of  the  pledge  cards.  Are 
there  not  some  members  of  the  Church  nearer  to 
it  than  China  who  have  received  pledge  cards 
without  responding  ?  " 

At  times,  doubtless,  it  was  difficult  to  keep  up 
the  correspondence  necessary  to  make  such  a  re- 
lationship between  a  missionary  and  a  church  a 
real  success,  but  in  the  spring  and  summer  of 
1899,  he  wrote  in  three  letters  a  small  volume  on 


Life  and  Work  in  China  219 

the  country  trip  he  had  made  in  the  preceding 
December.  These  letters  are  models  of  their  kind 
and  they  give  a  vivid  picture  of  missionary  itin- 
erating work: 

"  Paotingfu,  April  20,  i8pp. 

"  It  is  a  long  lane  that  has  no  turning!  In  this 
case,  the  bend  has  come  at  last,  and  you  are  to 
have  a  portion  of  the  long  promised  account  of 
my  trip  into  the  country  districts  south  of  Pao- 
tingfu.  As  we  have  said  in  the  letter  of  January 
2d,  it  was  a  trip  of  200  miles  and  occupied  two 
weeks.  Perhaps  one  week's  reminiscences  will 
be  sufficient  for  this  letter.  . 

"  Mr.  Ewing,  Meng  Mu  Shih  and  1  left  Paotingfu 
at  10:30,  bound  for  Hsiao  Hsin  Chuang.  We  had 
two  carts,  for  each  of  which  we  paid  thirty-five 
cents  a  day  and  found  the  food  for  animals  and 
drivers.  This  arrangement  was  necessary  as  we 
were  going  to  httle  villages  where  they  would  be 
dependent  on  the  courtesy  of  our  friends.  Two 
carts  were  enough,  for  one  of  us  would  almost 
always  be  walking  and  if  all  three  wanted  to  ride, 
a  seat  inside  and  one  on  the  shafts  would  solve 
the  problem.  We  walked  and  talked,  rode  and 
slept  for  twenty  miles,  when  at  five  o'clock,  we 
reached  a  little  inn  where  we  had  to  spend  the 

night. 

''Cart  travelling  has  serious  inconveniences. 
The  roads  are  divided  up  into  unequal  stages. 
As  inns  are  small  and  accommodations  limited, 
the  day's  stop  must  be  made  early,  or  you  will 
find  yourself  crowded  out.  Any  delay  on  the 
road  makes  reaching  the  desired  destination  a  se- 
rious matter.  You  must  either  stop  very  early  at 
a  point  some  distance  from  the  destination,  or  go 
on  and  take  the  chances  that  come  with  lateness. 
The  inn  proved  to  be  fair.     We  had  two  rooms, 


220  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

brick  floored  and  paper  ceiled,  each  with  a  brick 
platform,  or  kang,  the  Chinese  bed.  My  supper 
was  kua  mien — a  sort  of  macaroni,  boiled  in 
water  with  a  little  cabbage,  and  a  trifle  of  soup 
stock,  but  with  no  seasoning.  One  big  bowl 
was  sufficient.  The  inn  waiter  is  called  a  '  pao 
tang  dy'  or  *  gallop-soup  man.'  Tang  'soup' 
seems  to  be  a  favorite  appendix.  The  rich 
mud  in  deep  road  ruts  is  called  *  mud  soup'  and 
so  on  ad  infinitum.  Then  came  our  preparations 
for  bed.  Every  traveller  in  China  carries  his  small 
single  mattress  done  up  in  a  canvas  case.  The 
mattress  may  be  but  a  thin  quilt  or  even  a  fur  rug 
— it  is  a  mattress  and  has  a  case.  This  last  is 
sewed  all  around,  but  in  the  middle  on  one  side 
from  edge  to  edge  a  cut  is  made  with  overlapping 
edges  so  as  to  close  with  strings.  Through  this 
slit  the  mattress  is  pushed,  first  one  end  and  then 
the  other.  Then  follow  the  folded  bed  coverings 
and  all  extra  clothing.  Sometimes,  pockets  in 
the  canvas  carry  the  odds  and  ends.  The  bundle 
is  then  doubled  over  with  the  slit  inside,  a  rope  is 
passed  around  and  you  are  ready  for  travelling. 
If  it  be  by  donkey,  the  load  is  put  atop,  untied, 
and  you  climb  on.  If  it  be  by  cart,  half  the 
bundle  (untied)  is  made  to  serve  as  a  seat,  while 
the  other  is  propped  against  boxes  and  serves  as 
a  back.  To  pack  the  bundle  so  as  to  make  a  per- 
fect seat  and  back  is  quite  an  art.  'My,'  says 
my  journal,  'but  the  floors  are  cold.'  That's  a 
fact.  One  does  not  realize  how  cold  it  is  travel- 
ling, even  in  mild  weather.  The  houses  are  like 
cellars  and  the  inns  even  worse.  The  only  chance 
for  heat  is  to  have  a  pan  of  charcoal  brought  in — 
that's  of  little  use — or  to  have  the  kang  fired; 
this  means  that  the  common  fuel  in  North  China 
— stubble — is  brought  in  and  pushed  into  a  small 
square  opening  under  your  kang.  When  lighted, 
it  quickly  burns  up  and  needs  replenishing  until 


Life  and  Work  in  China  221 

through  brick  flues  that  run  around  under  the  top 
of  the  kang,  the  bed  is  warmed  and  the  room  is 
jammed  with  smoke  that  is  identical  with  that 
from  burning  leaves  at  home — you  can  imagine 
it!  If  they  have  a  chimney,  the  flue  is  made 
small  to  save  the  heat,  or  as  in  one  inn,  I  have 
heard  of  the  chimney  opened  directly  into  the 
room  so  that  all  the  heat  (and  other  things)  was 
completely  conserved.  The  country  kangs  are 
made  of  dirt  entirely,  with  brick  flues  and  front. 
The  dirt  is  frozen  so  that  to  light  a  fire  for  a  guest 
is  unfortunate,  as  the  dirt  turns  to  mud.  Many 
rooms  face  north,  so  all  winter  they  get  no  sun. 
A  cellar  is  comfortable,  compared  with  some  of 
them.  I  had  provided  myself  with  a  very  con- 
venient oil  stove  so  as  my  feet  were  aching,  even 
with  arctics  on,  I  toasted  them  a  while,  and  then 
'piled  in,'  sweater  and  all  on,  with  the  heavy 
ulster  on  top  of  the  pile.  Outside,  we  could  hear 
a  troupe  of  singing  girls,  but  they  soon  ceased. 
We  must  go  thirty  li  (lee)  (ten  miles)  to-morrow 
morning  to  our  destination.  Carts  go  ten  li  an 
hour,  so  it  will  be  three  hours  for  us. 

"  Sunday,  December  4th. — We  were  up  early— 
not  very  cold  out,  according  to  the  thermometer, 
but  by  one's  feelings,  the  cold  soon  began  to 
creep  in.  I  had  taken  along  a  food  box  with  its 
compartments  filled  with  canned  goods,  and  its 
drawers  with  flour,  towels  and  toilet  articles. 
This  was  a  precautionary  measure  for  fear  I  should 
be  unable  to  stomach  Chinese  food.  Many  mis- 
sionaries have  to  carry  such  a  box  on  all  their 
trips;  others  find  they  thrive  on  Chinese  food. 
For  myself,  I  found  it  not  absolutely  necessary, 
but  extremely  convenient.  For  a  week's  trip,  it 
would  not  be  necessary  in  any  such  elaborate 
form,  a  jar  or  two  of  beef  extract,  salt,  a  can  or 
twoof  salmon,  would  be  sufficient.  The  Chinese 
practice  of  eating  about  eleven  in  the  morning  is 


222  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

very  trying  to  the  stomach,  as  the  long  walk  with 
nothing  to  back  it,  rapidly  fatigues.  So  my  beef 
tea  was  a  regular  thing  before  we  started  out. 
Washing  apparatus  is  crude  in  the  inns.  Perhaps 
they  furnish  you  two  bowls  of  iron  ware  or  tin 
for  three  persons,  more  often  only  one  bowl. 
There  is  boiling  water  enough,  if  you  keep  ask- 
ing for  it.  The  Chinese  think  nothing  of  wash- 
ing all  in  the  same  water,  and  constantly  our 
pastor  would  follow  Ewing  or  myself  without 
bothering  to  change.  Ewing  was  wearing  outer 
garments  of  Chinese  fashion — even  to  cap  and 
shoes — heavy  stuff  things.  It  was  ridiculous  to 
watch  him  dress.  It  would  be,  *  Oh,  there  I've 
forgotten  my  sash — say  help  me,  put  it  on  under 
all  these  clothes ' — or  '  pshaw,  that  waistcoat 
ought  to  be  underneath,  I've  got  to  try  again.' 
Button-holes  under  the  arms  were  taxing  on  one's 
agility.  By  the  end  of  the  trip,  he  seemed  some- 
what expert,  but  the  buttons  were  never  mas- 
tered! 

**  At  8  p.  M.  we  were  finally  started.  The  sun 
and  exercise  soon  turned  us  into  fairly  warm  be- 
ings. For  thirty  li  (lee)  we  plodded  on  through 
a  flat  country  with  sparsely  scattered  trees.  The 
mud  villages  that  we  passed  seemed  to  be  under 
a  grove  of  trees.  The  ploughed  fields  had  few. 
Dirt  in  this  section  is  not  loam — it's  gray  clay — 
very  dusty  when  dry  and  very  sticky  when  wet. 
Anywhere  the  farmers  can  mix  up  some  mud  and 
mold  comparatively  decent  sun  dried  brick.  The 
sight  is  a  common  one, — that  of  circles  six  feet 
high  and  eight  feet  in  diameter  built  up  loosely  of 
drying  brick,  placed  anywhere  most  convenient 
in  the  fields.  In  America,  I  often  read  of  mis- 
sionaries doing  so  much  work  while  walking 
along  with  chance  strangers,  meeting  them  on 
the  roads.  It  seemed  to  me  to  show  a  high  order 
of  courage,  thus  to  do  personal  work.     We  are 


Life  and  Work  in  China  223 

able  to  do  so  little  of  the  kind  in  America.  Well, 
when  you  get  here,  it  is  different.  In  America, 
every  one  is  in  a  rush.  Here  every  one  walks  or 
rides  slowly.  Time  is  nothing.  Something 
amusing  is  everything.  It  is  no  courageous 
thing  to  do  personal  work  in  China;  "You  are 
expected  to  speak  to  every  one  you  meet  on  the 
country  roads  (mark  this  does  not  apply  to  towns 
and  cities)  and  they  ask  .^i^ij^fe^you-^are  going 
and  what  you  are  going  to  do,  for  all  the  world 
like  small  boys  and  girls,  a  thousand  times  a  day 
questioning  fathers  and  uncles,  and  every  one 
else.  China  is  full  of  societies.  *  Oh,  this  is  the 
Jesus  society,  is  it?'  'What's  that.?'  'Why, 
we  believe  in  one  God  and  don't  worship  idols! ' 
Then  follows  an  explanation  of  how  idols  can't 
hear,  smell,  talk — exactly  the  argument  of  a  sa- 
cred writer  hundreds  of  years  ago.  '  Have  you  a 
book  ?  ' — Every  society  has  some  publication — 
*0h,  yes,'  we  answer.  So  it  goes.  Perhaps  the 
man  has  been  in  Paotingfu  and  knows  the  doc- 
tors, etc.  There  is  no  trouble  to  find  an  audience 
— so  long^as  you  have  clothes  for  them  to  feel  of 
or  curious  words  for  them  to  hear.  All  along 
the  roads,  are  little  mud  rest-houses,  usually 
where  animals  may  drink,  and  the  invitation  is 
unanimous,  'Come  in  and  rest  a  bit.'  On  this 
morning  we  met  a  man  and  Ewing  asked  him 
how  far  hje  thought  the  sun  was — *  1,000  li?'  'Yes.' 
— *io,ooo  li?'  'Well,  I  hardly  dare  say.'  At 
11:30,  we  reached  Hsiao  Hsin  Chuang  (little 
heart  village).  The  chapel  is  in  a  large  court, 
and  as  we  entered,  the  church  gathering  was 
kneeling  in  the  last  prayer.  They  were  delighted 
to  see  us, — at  none  of  the  places  had  notice  been 
given  of  our  coming— and  set  to  work  clearing 
out  for  our  reception.  The  building  was  put  up 
some  years  ago — costing  $75  gold — one-half  of 
which  was  given  by  the  natives.     There  was  a 


224  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

large  room  for  meetings  and  a  small  one  for  the 
visiting  helper.  Each  had  a  brick  bed.  For  or- 
dinary women  in  our  section,  the  rule  is  to  squat 
Turkish  fashion  on  a  kang,  so  a  meeting-place 
must  have  such  a  bed  for  their  use.  Men  occupy 
chairs  and  benches,  the  women  never.  Of 
course,  if  you  are  in  a  Chinaman's  private  room,  he 
will  sit  on  the  kang — on  the  edge  of  it,  except  at 
meals  when  he  bends  his  legs — but  when  women 
are  present  at  our  gatherings  in  the  country,  the 
kang  is  reserved  for  them.  All  these  remarks 
are  intended  to  cover  country  customs.  Our 
compound  customs  in  Paotingfu  are  somewhat 
westernized.  For  the  noon  meal  (our  first  that 
day)  it  was  kua  mien  (macaroni)  and  cabbage. 
Then  I  prepared  some  fresh  grape  wine  and  at 
3  p.  M.  we  had  our  service — with  ten  or  twelve 
present — six  church  members.  The-igflOfarrce-of 
the  Qlhersricari  be  imagined  when  Ewing  tried 
without  success  rto  explain  that  the  world  is 
roun_d.  On  the  railroad  question,  Ewing  made 
the  statement  that  in  the  United  States  trains 
went  1,000  li  {^})  miles)  a  day.  1  said  '  You  put 
that  pretty  low.'  'Never  mind,'  he  replied,  '  it's 
bad  enough  for  them.'  After  the  preaching,  one 
of  the  members  was  ordained  deacon  and  then 
we  joined  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  The  utensils  for 
the  latter  were  simple  enough.  A  cup  for  the 
bread,  a  white  enamel  pitcher  and  Chinese  cup 
for  the  wine.  After  meeting,  Ewing  and  I  went 
for  a  long  walk  out  towards  the  mountains  that 
separate  Chih-li  from  Shan-si.  They  were  exqui- 
site with  the  setting  sun.  From  5 130  to  seven, 
Ewing  sat  in  the  room  and  talked  to  all  comers 
on  everything  under  the  sun.  Then  came  our 
second  meal — 'bo-bos'  (like  'saw') — thin  pieces 
of  dough  pinched  up  into  a  ball  with  chopped 
pork  and  various  vegetables  inside  and  then 
steamed.     You  eat  them  with  Chinese  vinegar — 


Life  and  Work  in  China  225 

not  at  all  like  ours — catching  them  in  your  chop- 
sticks, dipping  them  in  the  vinegar  and  either 
disposing  of  the  whole  at  a  mouthful,  or  grad- 
ually working  your  way  along, — that  is  if  the 
stuff  doesn't  slip  out  from  your  sticks  in  the 
process.  I  finished  twenty — that  was  the  meal. 
I  wasn't  absolutely  sure  of  after  effects.  Strange 
to  say,  no  harm  resulted.  Then  came  a  prayer- 
meeting  with  seventeen  present,  one  little  candle 
lighting  up  the  table  and  speaker,  while  the 
others  were  in  darkness!  Pastor  Meng  talked  of 
God's  leading  him  when  lost  in  the  mountains 
some  time  ago.  The  audience  soon  departed  at 
the  close  and  after  evening  prayers,  we  pulled 
out  our  bedding  and  crawled  in.  I  had  a  thick 
cotton  mattress,  but,  oh,  the  bricks  were  hard, 
and  my  pillow  would  slip  down  on  the  dirty 
mud  floor.  Still,  the  'bo-bos'  gave  no  signal  of 
distress,  so  the  night  soon  passed.  This  will 
give  you  some  idea  of  our  plan  of  work:  In  a 
day's  visit  at  a  place,  there  would  be  the  gather- 
ing of  the  curious  to  see  us  and  the  general  talk 
with  them;  then  a  meeting,  where,  after  the  ser- 
mon, the  message  of  Christian  organization 
would  be  given,  deacons  ordained  and  the  Lord's 
Supper  partaken  of;  then  an  evening  meeting 
beginning  informally  and  gradually  becoming 
more  direct,  until  as  the  outsiders  left,  a  group  of 
the  true  disciples  would  be  left  to  talk  together  till  a 
late  hour  of  the  things  of  the  kingdom.  The  in- 
terstices of  the  day  were  filled  with  as  much  talk 
as  we  could  stand,  until  Ewing  and  I  would  slip 
away  and  walk,  to  rest  a  little.  Some  time  ago, 
I  promised  you  a  word  on  Christian  organization. 
It  might  be  well  to  put  it  m  right  here.  The 
church  members  of  Paotingfu  station,  up  till  last 
year,  had  no  church  organization.  All  members 
in  the  country  had  their  names  in  the  books  at 
Paotingfu  and  were  kept  in  touch  by  visitation. 


226  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

The  missionary  was  in  charge  of  everything  and 
no^naTTve— not  even  a  pastor — was  on  a  par  with 
him,  except  by  privilege.  As  we  ordained  an- 
other pastor,  the  question  came  to  the  front. 
The  pastors  were  unwilling  to  occupy  such  an 
uncertain  position.  The  members  were  many — 
local  bodies  of  members  wanted  representation, 
and  if  ever  a  self-propagating  church  was  to  be 
established,  it  was  time  to  begin  the  work.  A 
principle  is  recognized  the  world  over  in  such  a 
situation.  Foreign  funds  are  to  be  entirely  under 
the  ^control  of  foreigners, — no  matter  how  much 
controT  of  affairs  is  given  to  the  native  Church, 
the  Board's  money  must  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
missionaries,  who  alone  are  responsible  to  the 
Board.  Without  going  into  the  steps  that  led  to 
the  plan,  the  organization  that  we  now  have  is  as 
follows: 

"It  is  more  Presbyterian  in  form  thaniJongce- 
gational,  though  we  still  maintain  the  Congrega- 
tionaT^polity  by  submitting  much  to  the  action  of 
the  Church  as  a  whole.  It  is  true  that  the  Epis- 
copal form  of  government  is  better  suited  than 
any  other  to  the  mission  Church.  But  as  we  be- 
lieve in  Congregational  polity,  we  are  trying 
gradually  to  rise  to  such  a  height — it  will  be  a 
long  time,  though.  Qne  at  Jiomje  can't  under- 
stand  h^w  4Jie.  laimly-Fektion  dominates  every- 
thing here,-  how,  unless  in  the  case  of  a  re- 
markable Christian,  a  son  couldn't  vote  against 
his  father,  or  a  younger  brother  versus  an  older. 
One  illustration  will  show  it.  My  teacher  was 
attacked  by  an  amateur  virago.  She  pulled  him 
around,  but  he  couldn't  strike  back.  Why  ?  Be- 
cause his  mother  years  ago  had  adopted  in  a  loose 
Chinese  fashion  a  son  of  a  man,  the  brother  of 
this  woman.  So  she  was  sort  of  an  aunt  to  him, 
and  as  she  was  older  than  he,  he  couldn't  touch 
her.     Imagine  cases  of  discipline  coming  up  in 


Life  and  Work  in  China  227 

the  Church  or  even  questions  regarding  entrance 
into  Church,  unless  the  case  were  absolutely 
proven  and  was  the  worst  type,  what  hope 
would  one  have  of  getting  a  right  vote  out  of 
friends  and  relatives  of  such  accused!  That's 
why  an  Episcopal  form  of  government  is  neces- 
sary as  yet. 

"  So  we  have  an  *  Yee  Shih  Huei ' — or  Congre- 
gational Association,  that  is  practically  a  session. 
It  is  composed  of  missionaries  and  helpers  and 
Paotingfu  Church  deacons, — all  having  equal 
vote, — three  "foreigners  and  seven  natives.  We 
can  trust  these  men's  votes, — though  with  them 
some  cases  have  been  a  very  hard  test,  and  the 
day  has  been  won  by  the  acknowledged  principle 
that  they  will  not  vote  over  us  for  a  thing  that  we 
solidly  oppose  and  we  won't  press  a  thing  that 
they  solidly  oppose.  Such  matters  are  quietly 
shelved.  This  Association  meets  twice  a  year 
and  has  its  various  committees — preaching, 
school,  matrimony,  ad  interim,  etc.  It  tries 
cases  of  discipline  and  as  a  whole  or  through 
the  pastors,  examines  for  probation  and  for  mem- 
bership. In  fact,  it  has  direct  control  of  every- 
thing connected  with  the  Church,  having  in  some 
cases  advisory  power — nothing  more — of  how 
foreign  money  may  be  expended,  such  as  for 
salaries,  school-work,  etc.  The  missionary  re- 
mains the  pastor  of  the  Church.  Native  pastors 
and  helpers  are  stationed  every  six  months  in 
charge  of  sections  of  outstations,  so  that  the 
whole  field  is  covered.  The  Congregational 
polity  comes  in  in  the  fact  that  admission  of 
members  and  any  special  actions  are  laid  before 
the  Church  for  action.  Other  decisions  of  the 
Yee  Shih  Huei  are  simply  read  out  for  informa- 
tion. Paotingfu— Ghiirch  is  made  up  of  some 
250  -mernbers — most  of  whom  are  scattered  over 
an  area  of  50x130  miles.     The  head  Church  con- 


228  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

gregation  at  Paotingfu  is  a  small  part  of  the 
whole.  They  occupy  the  position,  however,  of 
the  parent  Church  and  the  little  groups  in  the 
country  are,  in  Chinese,  *  branch  churches  '  (same 
word  as  vine  and  branches)  occupying  in  an  em- 
bryonic way  a  position  of  a  mission  church  in 
United  States  large  cities  with  the  parent  church. 
It  was  to  establish  this  arrangement  that  we  took 
the  trip.  Up  to  that  time,  there  had  been  no 
definite  policy — pastors  would  go  out  and  bring 
a  string  of  names  of  those  admitted  to  the 
Church,  some  on  very  little  evidence  of  conver- 
sion, not  one  of  whom  the  heads  of  the  Church 
here  would  know.  They  were  bound  to  the 
Paotingfu  local  congregation  in  no  way,  they 
practically  acknowledged  no  bond.  It  was  a 
curious  state  of  affairs.  Congregationalism  gone 
mad.     This,  then,  was  the  relation  established: 

**  I.  A  branch  church  must  have  at  least  ten 
members.  2.  It  must  have  regular  Sunday  serv- 
ices. 3.  It  must  have  at  least  one  deacon,  ap- 
pointed and  ordained  by  the  Yee  Shih  Huei.  4. 
It  must  have  regular  weekly  collections  for  its 
maintenance,  and  half-yearly  offerings  for  the 
parent  Church  at  Paotingfu,  which  shall  go  to- 
wards the  support  of  one  of  the  pastors.  5.  It 
must  have  a  church  attendance  record  and  a  regu- 
lar system  of  Bible  study.  These  are  the  condi- 
tions and  ten  out  of  eleven  of  our  Christian 
groups  can  fulfill  them.  Beside  the  helpers,  sta- 
tioned for  a  month  or  two  at  each  place  at  a 
time,  one  of  the  pastors  makes  a  semiannual 
round  to  visit  all  and  administer  the  communion. 
Also  one  pastor  is  steward  and  makes  a  semi- 
annual round  to  collect  the  contributions  for  the 
parent  church.  By  means  of  helpers,  church 
records,  etc.,  we  can  keep  a  fairly  close  survey  of 
the  field.  Our  rules  for  church  membership  are 
much  more  strict  now  than  a  year  ago.     All  must 


Life  and  Work  in  China  229 

first  be  probationers  for  at  least  six  months.     To 
be    probationers,    besides    character,    etc.,   they 
must  be  able  to  read  one  of  three  small  books, 
catechism-like.     After  six  months— if  the  church 
members  agree  and  the  helper  assents,  they  may 
come  to  Paotingfu,  unless  because  of  age,  etc., 
and  be  examined  on  two  of  the  three  books,  and 
if  character,  etc.,   be  worthy,  they  are  admitted 
at  Paotingfu— the  local  church  assenting.     '  The 
literary  requirements  are  little,'  you  say.     True, 
but  where  a  man  bright  as  a  trap  in  his  business, 
can't  learn  six  characters  in  an  evening  and  the 
proportion  of  our  communicants  are  over  fifty 
years  without  having  learned   a  character  until 
they  begin  to  read  these  books,  you  may  see  that 
the  standard  is  high.     Of  course,  for  a  few  who 
have  been  to  Chinese  schools  when  young,  we 
put  the  wall  higher.     This,  then,  is   our   plan, 
with  a  native  force  of   two  pastors  and  three 
helpers.     Twice  a  year  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Yee  Shih  Huei,  we  have  '  a  big  meeting  '—so- 
called.     The  last  one  was  last  week,  where  there 
were  seventy-nine  delegates   from  one  to  four 
days'  journey  distant." 

"  Paotingfu,  June,  73,  iS^p. 
"Our  last  letter  to  you  all  left  me  on  my 
winter  tour  at  the  village  of  Hsiao  Hsin  Chuang. 
We  had  wandered  in  our  talk  together  into  the 
region  of  Church  polity— a  very  perplexing  sub- 
ject out  here— and  we  were  foot  sore  from  our 
journey  of  twenty-five  to  thirty  miles.  So  we 
had  to  rest.  Now  we  are  all— as  the  Chinese  say 
—'ping  an'— that  is  'at  peace,'  and  so  we  are 
going  on  once  more.  By  the  way,  'Ping  an'  is 
a  very  common  expression  for  our  Christians. 
You  meet  one  and  it  is—'  Is  your  family— are  you 
—at  peace  ?  '—and  it  is  '  yee  lu  ping  an,'  '  all  your 


230  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

journey  peace!'  It  is  too  long  ago  to  remember 
exactly,  but  probably  with  this  same  expression 
the  village  members  of  Hsiao  Hsin  Chuang  bade 
us  farewell  on  Monday  morning,  December  5th. 
I  had  had  my  beef  tea  and  crackers  and  we  all 
had  joined  in  a  breakfast  of  kua  mien  or  maca- 
roni. The  members  had  been  assembling  and 
escorted  us  to  the  edge  of  the  village,  where 
with  many  *  tsai  chien's'  (again  see)  'don't  ac- 
company me's  ' — '  ping  an's,'  we  left  them  and 
started  off  in  a  northwestern  direction  towards 
the  mountains.  These  latter  were  beautiful  in 
brown  and  reddish  tints.  A  cool  wind  was 
blowing — the  sky  was  absolutely  clear — a  deli- 
cious day  for  walking.  In  four  hours  we  reached 
Tang  Hsien — quite  an  important  hsien  or  district 
city — walled,  of  course.  In  the  suburbs,  we  ate 
our  lunch  in  an  inn.  The  room  was  small  and  as 
prospects  for  something  appetizing  to  eat  were 
meager,  I  indulged  in  stewed  chipped  beef  and 
toast  of  my  own  making.  The  crowd  was 
rather  obstreperous  and  finally  to  keep  them 
quiet,  Ewing  went  out  to  talk  to  them.  It  was 
of  little  use  and  we  were  glad  to  get  our  carts 
started  once  more.  The  dilapidated  walls  were 
soon  left  behind  and  we  entered  a  loess  valley — 
like  an  ancient  river-bed  of  reddish  clay.  The 
loess  foundation  is  very  common  in  Western 
Chih-li  and  in  Shan-si.  It  is  the  peculiar  clay  soil 
that  readily  cleaves  perpendicularly,  as  though 
cut  by  a  knife — thus  making  most  interesting 
canons  and  plateaus.  Our  transitions  from  plain 
mud  to  this  red  clay  were  very  satisfactory,  and, 
after  passing  through  a  narrow  defile  made  by 
carts  in  the  clay  and  sandstone  of  a  high  plateau, 
we  were  prepared  for  our  entrance  into  a  new 
world  of  rock  and  hill.  A  short  climb  up  a  steep, 
rocky  road  landed  us  in  the  '  Yellow  Head  Horse  ' 
village — Ma  Huang  Tou.  As  I  wrote  you  some  time 


Life  and  Work  in  China  23I 

ago,  it  was  as  though  we  had  suddenly  been  set 
down  in  an  Alpine  village.     The  place  is  well- 
to-do,  for  the  villages  round  about  are  rich  in 
walnuts,    persimmons,    dates   and   wheat.     The 
streets  go  up  and  down  and  all  around— stone 
paved.     The  houses  are  stone— some  two  storied, 
with  battlements  and  curious  gargoyles.     Little 
wood  roofs,  painted  red,  over  doors  and  windows, 
set  off  the  gray  stone.     The  town  has  an  air  of 
ancient  respectability.     From  the  mountains  runs 
a  brawling  stream  with  pebbles  and  shining  sand 
—just  as  in  New  England;  and  all  the  fences  are 
stone  walls— a  sight  to  see!     The  people,  too,  are 
different    from    those    in    the    plains.     Darker, 
sturdier— and  very  hospitable.     Church  members 
came  from  all  sides  to  meet  us  and  carried  our 
things  up  a  steep  walk  to  the  chapel.     It  is  quite 
common  for  the  majority  of  the  people  in  any 
village  to  have  a  common  family  name.     Here  it 
is  'Rang.'     So  it  was  a  Rang  Lao  Hsuan,  who 
last  year  gave  this  building  to  the  church— lend- 
ing It  indefinitely— after  having  at  his  own  ex- 
pense fully  repaired  it.     Other  buildings  in  the 
yard,  he  used  for  grain,  etc.,  and  as  the  side  runs 
into  a  side  hill— large  caves  cut  in  the  clay,  facing 
south,    make    excellent    storehouses.      We    sat 
around  in  the  yard  and  were  properly  introduced 
to    Rang  this  and   Rang  that.     My   n^e-book 
seemed  to  get  into  inextricable  confusion.     As 
darkness    came   on,    we  had   dinner  of    boiled 
millet  straight— no  salt— no  sugar,  and  then  the 
meeting  began— some  sixteen  being  present.    By 
10  p.  M.  we  were  in  bed— side  by  side— three  on 
the  brick  bed.     The  two  rooms— one  large  one 
and  one  small,  are  very  neat.     Papered  walls  and 
ceiling  and  cement  floor  (no  pounded  dirt),      n 
the  small  room   is   a  fanning  machine— exactly 
like  a  home  one,  except  for  the  absence  of  sieves 
—using  instead  troughs  into  which  the  grain  of 


232  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

varying  weight  drops  until  the  residue  and  chaff 
are  blown  out  at  the  rear.  I  could  hardly  believe 
that  this  was  not  a  copy  of  a  western  machine. 
This,  and  the  harness  used  with  the  carts,  I  can't 
understand.  The  harness  has  been  used  for  cen- 
turies, yet  were  it  to  be  seen  with  a  dump  cart  in 
Cleveland,  I  doubt  if  it  would  attract  the  least 
attention.  Have  we  copied  them  or  they  us  ? 
On  the  walls  are  maps — one  of  Jerusalem — one  of 
China.  Also  calendars  for  '97  and  for  '98.  These 
are  seen  in  almost  every  Christian  home — at  least 
in  the  more  important  ones,  or  in  chapels.  In  the 
centre  are  the  Chinese  dates  upon  which  the  Sun- 
days fall.  Otherwise  none  would  know  when  to 
keep  Sunday,  for  the  Chinese  reckoning  is  only 
by  months — not  by  weeks.  On  the  sides  are 
wood  cuts  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  of  the  Lost  Sheep 
— even  a  diagram  of  the  muscles  of  the  eye — 
while  at  the  bottom  are  the  east  and  west  con- 
tinents, Mercator's  Projection — the  whole  com- 
pleted by  a  description  of  the  wood  cuts. 

"  Tuesday,  December  6th. — People  were  around 
us  before  we  were  dressed — or  rather  washed — 
for  it  was  too  cold  to  do  much  undressing  or 
dressing.  Breakfast  was  kua  mien  and  boiled 
cabbage,  and  we  had  a  quiet  time  till  service  at 
II  A.  M.,  where  among  the  sixteen  sat  three — on 
a  carpenter's  horse  together — who  had  never  seen 
a  foreigner  before.  They  used  their  eyes  and 
ears  well.  We  took  dinner  at  the  house  of  the 
rich  young  man  of  the  village.  He  has  had  op- 
portunities for  study  at  Tungcho,  but  his  affairs 
are  keeping  him  away  from  as  active  a  Christian 
life  as  we  could  wish.  When  I  asked  our  pastor, 
Meng,  who  was  with  us,  about  him  he  said, 
'  He  is  a  Martha — we  only  wish  he  were  a  Mary.' 
Imagine  the  dinner — big  flapjacks  of  sodden 
buckwheat — flour  strings  boiled  hard  in  a  little 
weak  soup  and  some  curds  made  of  fermented 


Life  and  Work  in  China  233 

beans.  I  am  afraid  I  ate  rather  sparingly.  Prob- 
ably, it  was  his  regular  food. 

"  In  the  afternoon,  we  ordained  two  deacons. 
The  service  was  hardly  to  western  ideas  in 
decency  and  good  order.  The  two  men  stood 
before  us — one  the  lender  of  the  building,  very 
bashful  and  uneasy,  the  other,  the  rich  young 
man,  looking  at  the  ceiling  in  a  most  foolish  fash- 
ion. In  the  midst  of  the  talk,  two  strangers  came 
in,  whereupon  the  younger  man  turned,  greeted 
them  most  effusively,  gave  them  seats  and  re- 
sumed his  position.  At  the  close  of  the  talk,  the 
older  man  protested — said  he  couldn't  read — was 
not  fit  to  be  a  deacon,  and  was  with  difficulty 
kept  from  walking  into  the  next  room.  It  was 
certainly  a  worthy  modesty,  but  Meng  stated  in 
somewhat  Papal-Bull  fashion  that  his  appoint- 
ment had  been  made  in  Paotingfu,  there  was  no 
way  out  of  it.  After  the  ordination  came  the 
Lord's  Supper — then  a  walk  out  on  the  hills,  so 
like  those  about  Jerusalem.  More  kua  mien  for 
supper.  A  crowd  came  in  the  evening,  but  by 
ten  we  were  in  bed. 

''Wednesday,  December  7th. — This  morning 
after  a  hearty  breakfast  of  millet  and  rice  mixed, 
supplemented  by  a  bowl  of  kua  mien  (I  was 
hungry,  you  see)  we  had  a  little  farewell  meet- 
ing, and  then  turned  to  the  southeast,  back  to 
Tang  Hsien,  The  village  turned  out  in  strong 
force  to  see  us  go,  and  the  elders  of  the  church 
accompanied  us  quite  a  distance.  It  seemed  so 
much  like  the  care  that  the  elders  of  Miletus  and 
the  Christians  of  Tyre  had  for  Paul  as  he  journeyed 
to  Rome.  On  our  way  across  the  fields,  I  asked 
Meng  of  what  use  we  foreigners  were  here  now, 
for  I  had  seen  how  he  could  get  into  the  hearts 
where  we  touch  the  outside  only.  He  dodged 
the  question.  Chinaman  like,  and  replied:  Mf  a 
man  be  not  filled  with  God,  he  is  useless  any- 


^34  ^  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

where.'  It  was  only  a  few  li  to  the  *  Big-Temple- 
City-between  '-village.  We  stopped  in  to  see  an 
old  Christian  with  his  wife,  also  a  Christian. 
Their  house  was  scrupulously  clean.  As  we 
talked,  heathen  came  in  till  the  room  was  full. 
The  son  wished  to  enter  the  church,  but  we 
made  him  wait.  Then  we  had  a  little  service, 
followed  by  the  Lord's  Supper — for  just  us  five, 
no  o#^er-ChrislJ an  being  in  the  village.  It  was  a 
typical  scene — the  two  Christians  and  the  son — 
while  all  around  sat  those,  many  of  whom  had 
never  before  heard  a  connected  statement  of 
Christ's  sacrifice.  At  the  end,  books  were  sold 
for  one-tenth,  one-fifth  or  one-third  of  a  cent 
apiece.  By  noon  we  were  on  our  way  once 
more,  passed  Tang  Hsien,  and  twenty-five  li 
further  arrived  in  Chieh  Tang.  Here  is  the  court 
of  'the  happy  family' — as  I  call  them.  The 
father  with  the  mother  and  two  sons  fitted  up  an 
end  room  and  have  given  it  to  the  church  for 
services  this  year.  He  entered  the  Christian 
church  last  year,  and  in  this  short  time  has 
gathered  many  about  him  through  his  sunshiny 
life.  His  brother's  family  and  his  son's  family, 
all  live  in  the  one  court.  We  sat  out  in  the  yard 
drinking  tea  and  visiting  with  all  comers.  One 
little  fellow,  looking  over  my  shoulder  as  I  wrote, 
said,  '  Devil's  pencil.'  I  turned  and  asked  him — 
'  What's  this  ?  '— '  Pencil '— *  What  pencil  ?  '— 
'Devil's  pencil!'  It  was  perfectly  innocent — it 
simply  showed  that  all  strange  things,  including 
foreigners,  were  to  be  considered  of  the  devil. 
Dinner  was — guess! — kua  mien.  Then  came  a 
service,  with  mostly  heathen  present.  At  9  p.  M., 
when  all  were  gone — the  four  Christians  and  two 
babies,  Paul  and  John,  with  two  interested  friends, 
gathered  for  the  Lord's  Supper.  It  was  a  family 
service — one  unique  for  a  westerner — a  family 
prayer  service, — as  the  little  John   prattled  on, 


Life  and  Work  in  China  235 

just  waked  up  from  his  evening  nap — and  we  all 
joined  in  this  loving  fellowship  service.  As  we 
made  ready  for  sleep,  they  tried  to  warm  the 
bed,  but  only  succeeded  m  filling  the  room  with 
smoke.     It  was  very  cold. 

**  Tuesday,  December  8th.— A  perfect  day— but 
cold.     A  meal  of  rice  and  kua  mien  and  we  were 
ready  for  visitors— a  number  came,  all  of  whom 
had  been  touched  by  this  one  light  in  the  dark- 
ness—the family  of  Chang  Lao  Chuang.    Fmally, 
after  singing,    'Till  we   meet  agam,'  we  were 
off.     Reached  Ching  Feng  Tien— a  busy  market 
town— where  we  sold   a  few  books  from  the 
cart.     We  learned  here  of  the  honesty  of  the 
Chinaman  in  buying  these  books.     No  matter  at 
how  much  trouble,  he  would  always  be  careful 
to  return  the  book  that  he  had  been  inspecting. 
By  noon,  we  reached  Tung  Fang,  where  in  the 
open  court  of  the  inn,  surrounded  by  at  least  200 
interested  spectators,  we  ate  our  bowls  of  flour 
strings    and    cabbage.     This  is   a  great  cotton 
centre.     Liu  To  we  reached  at  5 :  30,  after  passmg 
through  a  plain  of  prairie-like  extent,  the  ground 
slightly  alkali,  followed  by  an  orchard  of  pear  and 
date  frees,  simply  miles  in  area.     It  must  be  a 
beautiful  spot  in  the  spring.     We  found  a  little 
tumble-down  inn  with  a  small  room,  whose  door 
was  fast  going  to  the  bad.     We  were  tired  of 
Chinese  food,  so  Ewing  and  I  had  a  feast  of 
canned  salmon,  toasted  crackers  and  cocoa,  end- 
ino-  with  doughnuts.     We  slept  the  sleep  of  the 
just  on  the  narrow  kang.     It  was  too  cold  for 
fleas  or  worse  creatures.  .      . 

''Friday,  December  9th.— This  morning  in  the 
dark,  we  got  the  carts  started.  It  was  seven 
miles  to  breakfast  at  Ta  Wang  Li.  The  orchard 
gave  place  to  ploughed  plain,  with  circles  of  mud- 
brick  drying,  scattered  all  around.  When  we 
reached  about  9  a.  m.  Ta  Wang  Li,  the  house  of 


236  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

thfi_anl^Christian  in  the  town  was  quickly  sur- 
rounded and  to  keep  property  from  being  hurt — 
as  the  place  is  notorious  for  bad  treatment  of 
foreigners — we  went  outside  to  preach.  Table 
and  chairs  were  brought  out,  and  as  we  sat  or 
talked,  the  crowd  was  kept  busy  until  breakfast 
time,  when  by  making  rapid  tracks,  we  reached 
an  inn  and  the  door  was  bolted  behind  us.  The 
crowd  protested,  but  finally  melted  away,  only  to 
reassemble,  when  having  finished  flour  strings, 
we  once  more  put  in  an  appearance.  Seeing  no 
chance  for  quiet,  we  ordered  our  carts  and  pushed 
on  to  a  little  village  nearby,  Tung  Wang  Li.  We 
stopped  a  few  minutes  to  chat  with  a  very  nice 
Christian  family — one  of  the  important  bits  of 
leaven  in  China — and  went  on  again  to  Ti  Chuan 
— arriving  about  4  p.  M.  We  stopped  with  a 
family  of  cotton  spinners,  in  whose  yard  is  the 
new  chapel,  just  being  completed  at  the  cost  of 
nearly  |ioo,  gold.  This  amount  has  almost  en- 
tirely come  from  the  Christian  members  and  rep- 
resents cost  of  stuff,  for  the  labor  (except  some 
little  by  skilled  workmen)  was  given  freely  by 
the  members.  That  is  Christianity!  In  the 
house,  one  family  had  to  move  out  of  a  room  and 
give  it  to  us.  We  carefully  avoided  looking  at 
things  too  closely.  In  the  main  room  or  kitchen, 
was  a  stall  for  a  cow.  But  the  Christianity  of  the 
people— of  that  I  must  write.  Everything  was 
so  quiet,  so  joyful — in  such  order.  As  we  sat  in 
the  yard  to  greet  visitors — in  the  house  at  meals, 
at  the  service,  in  the  leave-taking — all  was  the 
same.  I  remember  how  the  next  morning  as  we 
parted  from  the  final  prayer-meeting  in  the  yard, 
and  started  for  the  road,  one  of  the  Christians 
caught  up  his  basket,  which  he  used  in  gathering 
manure  on  the  roads,  and  laughingly  went  on 
with  us — the  humblest  disciple,  in  the  poorest  of 
occupations,  but  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity 


Life  and  Work  in  China  237 

in  his  heart.  That_group  of  disciples  runs  the 
gamutirom  this  lowly  fitan  to  the  children  of  the 
fead  man  of  the  village.  Of  the  evening  service 
I  have  written.  A  quiet,  solemn  service — we  in 
the  little  room  with  the  women  and  the  new  dea- 
cons on  the  kang  in  front  of  us, — the  elements  on 
a  table  under  a  flickering  candle  at  our  side — and 
the  men  outside  in  a  larger  room.  After  the  serv- 
ice, as  the  men  gathered  to  discuss  the  money 
still  owing  on  the  chapel,  it  was  one  of  the  new 
deacons  who  bravely  said:  *  It  is  the  opportunity 
that  makes  the  man.'  Of  such  stuff  are  these 
twenty  odd  disciples  in  Ti  Chuan. 

"Saturday,  December  loth. — After  flour  strings 
this  morning,  we  held  our  farewell  prayer-meet- 
ing in  the  yard  and  were  soon  on  our  way  to  Chi 
Chou — twenty-five  li  away.  Here  we  caught  our 
first  bad  crowd.  Before  we  reached  the  inn,  the 
streets  were  filled,  and  as  they  came  flocking  into 
the  yard,  we  knew  we  were  in  for  it.  There  was 
a  big  fair  on  and  the  country  folk  were  in  for  fun. 
We  escaped  them  in  the  confusion  and  got  into  a 
room,  but  they  scented  us  and  began  to  break 
down  the  door  and  pull  the  paper  off  the  win- 
dows. A  crowd  in  China  while  happy  is  all 
right,  but  patience  does  not  last  forever,  and  we 
were  afraid  to  try  them  too  far,  so  we  went  out 
and  as  I  sat  on  a  cart,  Ewing  tried  to  preach.  It 
was  little  use.  Fortunately,  dinner  was  soon 
ready  and  we  ate  the  pork  *  bo-bos  '  with  great 
relish  while  the  crowd  gazed.  The  last  *  bo-bo,' 
we  offered  to  the  children,  but  never  a  one  would 
touch  it— afraid  of  the  devil.  An  old  beggar 
finally  dared.  It  was  hard  work  sitting  on  an  empty 
cart,  while  Ewing  stood  between  the  shafts  and 
preached.  Scores  of  children  were  on  the  hind 
end  of  the  cart,  and  there  was  no  telling  when 
the  nicely  adjusted  balancing  of  parts  might  be 
overturned,  and  1— well,  there  would  be  a  limit 


238  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

to  upward  flight.  The  crowd  got  saucy,  some 
toughs  came  in  and  tried  to  snatch  things — and 
we  were  glad  to  get  away.  For  a  long  distance 
the  jeering  rabble  followed  us.  I  had  on  foreign 
clothes,  while  Ewing  wore  Chinese  garments.  1 
began  to  wish  I  had  done  likewise.  It  was  a  long 
forty-five  li  to  Chi  Chi,  our  next  point,  so  we 
made  for  a  little  village,  Tzu  Wei,  by  name.  It 
was  dark  before  we  arrived,  and  we  were  provi- 
dentially guided  at  more  than  one  point.  One,  1 
remember,  particularly — at  a  crossroad,  where  we 
had  already  turned  in  a  wrong  direction  when  a 
man  came  along — the  only  man  we  met  after- 
wards. Had  we  missed  the  road,  it  would  have 
meant  many  a  li,  for  we  were  searching  for  the 
only  bridge  in  miles  across  the  river.  We  found 
a  little  inn  that  was  not  full,  but  no  separate 
rooms  were  to  be  had.  So  we  camped  out  in  the 
kitchen  on  the  brick  bed  that  took  seven  persons. 
Here  we  ate  our  flour  strings  that  we  saw,  and 
felt  (for  the  smoke  was  suffocating)  being  made, 
and  then  waiting  for  the  tavern  loafers  to  get  out, 
we  dragged  out  many  weary  minutes.  Such  a 
'  gang  '  is  unreachable  by  a  foreigner.  A  China- 
man whom  they  can  understand  can  do  some- 
thing. A  bully  came  in  and  tried  to  '  play  horse.' 
Ewing  beat  him  off  at  the  game;  and  at  last  in 
despair  of  getting  any  rest  in  such  a  place,  we 
went  out  and  crawled  into  our  two  carts — sort  of 
doubled  up  and  got  to  sleep.  Fortunately,  clouds 
had  come  up  and  the  warmest  night  of  our  trip 
was  the  result.  This  only  kept  us  from  freez- 
ing. Meng  talked  till  after  midnight  with  the 
crowd  in  the  kitchen  and  managed  to  sell  some 
books. 

"Last  letter  left  me  in  Hsaio  Hsin  Chuang. 
This  one  leaves  us  asleep  in  the  carts  in  the  little 
inn  of  Tzu  Wei. 


Life  and  Work  in  China  239 

"Now  a  word  on  the  happenings  of  the  last  six 
weeks.  The  main  event  has  been  our  Annual 
Meeting  at  Tungcho,  where  we  renewed  our  ex- 
periences of  two  years  ago,  a  few  weeks  after 
our  arrival  in  China.  All  the  seven  stations  were 
represented  from  Kalgan  in  the  north  to  Ling 
Ching  in  the  south.  This  jear^  Paotingfu  was 
added-4o^- the  Hst  of  ea^^TTy  accessible  places,  but 
Kalgan  is  still  a  week  away,  and  Ling  Ching 
two  at  least.  There  were  thirty-nine  adults  and 
the  children  brought  it  well  up  towards  sixty. 
Previous  to  our  meetings,  the  Chinese  helpers  had 
had  a  sort  of  summer  school  of  two  weeks. 
Then  on  Sunday  came  the  two  annual  ser- 
mons, the  English_one,  preached  by  me  and  the 
Chinese  by  Mr.  Ewing.  Monday,  Tuesday  and 
Wednesday  were  filled  with  Chinese  debates  and 
discussions  as  well  as  reports  from  all  the  work 
— ending  with  a  session  for  Chinamen  only. 
Thursday  began  our  business  sessions  which 
were  carried  through  Tuesday  of  the  next  week. 
Two  business  sessions  each  day  with  a  prayer- 
meeting  each  evening,  except  one  on  which  the 
annual  essay  is  read  and  discussion  takes  place, 
and  one  on  which  the  musical  entertainment  and 
general  good  time  have  full  swing.  The  business 
of  these  sessions  is  to  learn  of  the  work  of  the 
stations,  transact  business  connected  with  the 
mission  as  a  whole,  and  prepare  the  financial 
estimates  for  the  coming  year,  which  are  to  be 
presented  to  the  Prudential  Committee  of  the 
Board." 

"  Pei-tai-ho,  September  11,  i8gg. 
**  .  .  .  As  I  remember  it,  you  left  me  or  I 
left  you — which  was  it  ? — at  the  little  village  of 
Tzu  Wei,  doubled  up  in  the  carts  out  in  the  court  of 
the  inn.  The  sky  was  clouded  and  this  kept  us 
from  freezing.     Meng,  our  pastor,  was  able  to  en- 


240  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

dure  seven  on  one  bed,  plus  other  things;  so  he 
stayed  in  the  kitchen.  It  was  Saturday  night,  and 
we  were  close  to  our  Sunday  stop — Chi  Chi  (you 
can  discover  the  place  on  the  map,  pronounced 
'  Chee  jee').  We  knew  we  should  have  to  be 
up  bright  and  early  the  next  morning,  if  we  were 
to  escape  the  crowd  which  would  be  sure  to 
gather.  But  we  were  not  quick  enough — any 
kind  of  news  without  regard  for  quality,  travels 
fast  in  China.  We  ate  our  flour  strings  in  the 
kitchen,  while  the  landlord  good-naturedly  kept 
the  crowd  from~^artnnily  running  over  us  by 
liberal  sprays  of  water  ^otl  hot  and  cold.  _  Many 
a  tPireatened  outbreak  in  China  has  been  pre- 
vent^jd  and^many  a  missionary  life  saved  by  a 
providential  rain.  No  Chinaman  can  screw  up 
his  courage  to  stick  out  in  the  rain.  In  like  man- 
ner.our^peace  of  mind  was  preserved  by  that  im- 
provised  rajn^n  that  Sunday,  December  11,  1898. 
"We  were  soon  off  amid  cheers,  jeers  and 
laughter,  and  reached  Chi  Chi  about  10:30.  The 
chapel  is  in  a  court  of  a  fine  young  fellow — one 
of  the  two  who  afterwards  were  ordained  dea- 
cons. One  of  our  helpers  from  Paotingfu  was 
living  there  for  the  three  months  of  his  stay. 
Our  five  helpers  have  to  keep  moving  around  in 
order  to  hold  our  eleven  outstations.  This  man, 
Chao  by  name,  had  books  and  rather  primitive 
maps  with  him,  so  that  in  daily  evening  classes, 
he  was  gradually  teaching  the  Christians  the 
great  truths.  The  throng  crowded  the  room  so 
that  we  adjourned  to  a  neighboring  yard  for  serv- 
ice. Some  sixty  were  gathered  around  on  piles 
of  fodder  and  any  old  benches  available.  After 
service  every  one  wanted  to  see  everything  one 
possessed,  so  we  escaped  to  the  room  where  our 
meal  was  ready.  Only  by  dint  of  positive  force 
could  the  room  be  cleared  and  we  be  left  in 
peace.     At  3:30  came  our  main  meeting  in  the 


Life  and  Work  in  China  241 

court.  It's  pretty  certain  none  of  you  ever  saw 
one  like  it.  We  four  sat  up  against  the  house  in 
the  sun.  Then  the  yard  was  filled  with  the 
crowd.  On  our  right  were  the  few  men  Chris- 
tians— on  the  left,  the  women — in  front  men, 
women,  children,  chickens,  dogs,  etc.,  etc.  Even 
the  fences  were  picketed — and  it  was  a  gala  day 
for  some  women  drying  grain  on  the  top  of  a 
house  near  by.  At  our  feet  was  a  low  table, 
holding  the  elements  for  our  communion  feast. 
The  crowd,  constantly  changing,  stayed  by  till 
dusk,  when  we  closed.  Beside  the  service,  we 
ordained  two  deacons,  one  the  young  man  re- 
ferred to  above,  and  the  other,  an  older  and  even 
more  striking  man  with  iron  gray  hair,  fuzzy 
beard,  erect,  silent,  speaking  low  when  he  ut- 
tered his  few  words.  He  seemed  to  me  the 
type  of  an  old  western  reformer — he  didn't  look 
like  a  celestial  of  the  Middle  Kingdom. 

"A  hen  came  too  near  and  had  to  be  chased 
away — the  pigs  began  to  squeal,  but  a  small  boy 
fixed  them.  One  little  youngster  went  fast 
asleep  sitting  upright.  That  was  'nuts'  for  the 
others.  They  poked  until  he  got  mad  and  hit 
back.  When  the  elder  deacon  passed  the  bread, 
he  really  didn't  know  what  to  do,  so  he  helped 
himself  and  passed  it  back.  With  proper  coach- 
ing he  learned  rapidly.  But  in  spite  of  it  all,  as 
the  shadows  came  on,  the  ceremony  was  com- 
pleted and  the  members  of  the  Church  of  Christ 
— ^just  a  little  knot  of  them  way  in  the  centre  of 
heathen  China — joined  together  in  holding  once 
more  the  Lord  in  memory  till  He  come. 

"After  supper,  the  crowd  was  upon  us.  To 
have  any  quiet  time  with  our  members,  we  had 
to  walk  out  of  town,  wait  till  all  was  quiet  and 
then  steal  carefully  back.  Our  little  service  was 
prolonged  till  eleven  o'clock.  One  old  woman 
with  happy  face  brought  in  eggs  and  potatoes. 


242  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Then  came  peanuts.  Of  course,  lots  of  hot 
water  was  made  on  the  Httle  stove,  and  every 
one  took  some.  Many  problems,  such  as  admis- 
sion of  certain  persons  to  the  Church,  were  dis- 
cussed and  all  were  exhorted,  sung  with  and 
prayed  with.  Finally,  Ewing  and  I  were  left 
alone  and  prepared  for  a  night  on  the  brick  bed. 

"Monday,  December  12,  1898. — At  4:30,  the 
carters  shook  open  the  door  and  came  in  to 
escape  the  fierce  wind  and  snow.  We  slept  on 
till  breakfast,  ate  our  kua  mien  (macaroni)  and 
started  off  with  everything  we  possessed  on  our 
backs  for  the  wind  was  frightful  from  the  north- 
west. Luckily,  we  went  southeast  so  were 
saved  from  much  of  the  cold.  On  our  way,  we 
stopped  _a_jfew  moments  at  the  house  of  an  old 
church  memT3er,  whose  whole  family  has  bitterly 
opposed  him.  Curiously  enough,  he  is  a  coward, 
while  his  wife  is  a  regular  virago.  She  used  to 
come  after  him  when  he  was  at  meetings  and 
I  pull  him  through  the  streets,  cursing  him  all  the 
'  way.  Once  she  dragged  him  by  his  hair.  The 
son  stood  by  the  mother.  But  something  reached 
the  old  woman  and  she  allowed  the  man  to  come 
to  our  meetings — in  fact,  to  invite  us  to  stop  at 
the  house.  The  son  came  with  him,  also,  and 
attended  the  first  meeting  of  his  life.  So  we 
stopped  at  the  house  with  one  of  the  deacons — 
had  lunch  and  then  held  a  little  service,  soon  de- 
parting. This  spring,  at  our  semi-annual  confer- 
ence at  Paotingfu,  the  son  came  up  to  be  received 
on  probation  into  the  church.  The  father  came 
with  him,  a  picture  of  joy.  So  we  travelled  the 
day  long — the  wind  getting  colder  each  hour. 
The  country  was  like  our  western  prairies— 
sparsely  settled,  though  evidently  rich  agricul- 
turally. For  noon,  we  stopped  at  a  market  town 
where  they  were  expecting  a  fair.  To  avoid 
trouble,  as  we  were  in  territory  where  perhaps  a 


Life  and  Work  in  China  243 

foreigner  had  never  been  seen — we  put  down  the 
front  curtains  and  rode  unnoticed  into  tlie  inn- 
yard.  The  landlord  was  polite  and  showed  us 
into  his  own  apartments,  so  we  rested  undis- 
turbed. The  afternoon's  ride  led  us  into  sandy 
and  less  fertile  country  until  after  twenty-five 
miles  for  the  day,  we  reached  our  southernmost 
point,  the  old  city  of  Shu-lu.  The  new  one  is 
ten  miles  beyond.  Tired  and  cold,  we  crawled 
upon  the  brick  bed  of  a  barn-like  room,  dirty  as 
could  be,  and  dropped  into  a  sound  sleep. 

"  Tuesday,  December  13th. — Our  work  here 
was  to  see  about  opening  a  street  chapel.  No 
work  had  ever  been  done  here,  but  this  is  one  of 
the  southern  points  of  our  'sphere  of  influence' 
so  we  wished  to  occupy  it.  After  a  breakfast  of 
cereal  and  cocoa,  the  men  began  to  arrive — nice 
fellows,  whom  the  innkeeper  sent  in  after  inter- 
esting them  in  some  books  Meng  had  given  him 
the  night  before.  Then  Meng  hunted  up  a  fel- 
low— an  old  Christian,  somewhat  cold-hearted — 
who  might  help  us  a  little.  The  three  started  off 
to  see  a  Christian  three  miles  away,  while  1  kept 
the  fort.  Some  tables  in  the  room  made  me  a 
counter  across  the  room,  and  men  soon  began  to 
pour  in.  They  were  simply  a  curious  lot,  but 
many  could  not  be  so  impolite  as  not  to  buy  a 
book.  So  as  the  fifty  or  more  kept  coming  in 
and  going  out,  chaffing,  laughing  and  asking 
questions,  1  tried  to  keep  their  minds  on  the  fact 
that  here  were  books — catechism,  three-word 
classic  and  lots  of  others — all  going  for  from  one- 
fifth  of  a  cent  to  one  cent  apiece.  The  melee 
lasted  till  six  o'clock  and  in  the  end,  1  had  sold 
many  books  amounting  to  the  huge  sum  of  ten 
cents.  This  was  my  first  experience  at  book- 
selling in  China.  They  said  it  was  pretty  good 
for  a  new  place  and  in  an  inn-yard.  At  any 
rate,  my  throat  was  tired  and  my  body  decidedly 


244  ^  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

weary.  In  the  evening,  I  set  my  kerosene  stove 
under  me,  and  managed  to  keep  comfortable, 
while  we  held  conference  as  to  the  opening  of  a 
chapel.  (After  seven  months,  I  have  heard  that 
property  now  is  rented.     Of  this  later.) 

"Wednesday,  December  14th. — While  eating 
breakfast,  we  were  raided  by  the  Chinese  and 
with  difficulty  we  got  the  coast  clear.  It  was 
apparent  now  that  I  must  wear  Chinese  clothes. 
Meng  had  bought  a  fur  outer  coat  and  had  a 
wind-hat,  wadded.  With  an  outer  sleeveless 
vest  and  a  sash,  I  was  soon  rigged  out.  The 
coat  was  short — my  trousers  and  foreign  shoes 
were  conspicuous — but  when  I  got  in  the  cart 
and  pulled  the  blanket  up,  I  was  safe.  The  fair 
was  on  (they  have  one  every  two  days)  so  the 
inn-yard  was  full  of  bullock  carts.  Bullocks  are 
rare  at  Paotingfu  where  we  have  mostly  mules. 
The  streets  were  thronged.  At  one  point,  we 
stopped  a  moment,  but  the  crowds  were  so  de- 
termined to  see  us  and  were  so  obstreperous, 
that  we  hastened  on.  Near  Tang  Feng,  our  des- 
tination, we  stopped  to  eat  with  Meng's  uncle. 
For  the  first  time,  I  was  unconspicuous,  and  we 
could  eat  and  talk  without  every  one  looking  at  our 
clothes.  There  was  no  shrieking  crowd  of  chil- 
dren on  the  streets  as  you  walked.  Why,  even 
in  the  country,  I  had  persons  stop  and  ask  what 
my  coat  was  made  of — wool  is  never  used  by 
them  for  clothing.  It  is  invariably  cotton  for 
summer  and  cotton  wadding  for  winter.  At 
Tang  Feng,  we  found  a  village  famous  before 
the  T'ai  P'ing  rebellion,  but  now  gone  to  ruin. 
The  inn  was  a  mud  brick  concern  whose  floor 
had  been  two  weeks  before  many  inches  under 
water.  In  this  damp  and  unwholesome  place, 
we  camped  out  for  the  night.  A  Chinaman  sel- 
dom talks  to  you  of  his  wife — especially  of  any 
affection  for  her.     I  said  to  Meng,  whose  family 


Life  and  Work  in  China  245 

life  is  an  ideal  Christian  one — '  I  know-three  per- 
sons who  will  be  glad  -whfin  we  get  home  to 
Paotingfu.'  -  .'No,'  said  he,  'two — there  is  Pi  Tai 
Tai-  (Mrs.  P.)  and  Yu  Tai  Tai  (Mrs.  Ewing).' 
I  could  get  him  no  further.  The  church  here  is 
badly  split  up.  There  are  twelve  members — but 
feuds  have  come  in.  The  consequence  is  that 
everything  is  very  dead.  With  the  ruin  of  the 
place  seems  to  be  a  ruin  in  warm  hearts.  Few 
men  came  in,  as  we  all  wore  Chinese  clothes  and 
there  was  little  for  them  to  see. 

**  Thursday,  December  15th.— A  brick  bed,  per- 
fectly flat  is  bad  enough.  Add  some  holes  and 
it  is  abominable.  Our  bed  had  holes.  By  this 
time  we  had  reached  a  spot  where  food  was 
hard  to  find.  Kua  mien  had  also  palled  when 
eaten  thrice  a  day.  So  our  food  box  was  being 
esteemed  more  and  more  highly.  After  a  break- 
fast out  of  it,  we  started  for  the  house  of  the  best 
of  the  church  members.  Evefythmg  was  deso- 
latsdiyi-the  water.  The  people  had  not  only  lost 
their  year's  beans,  but  had  seen  the  plants  and  all 
buried  beneath  the  mud  brought  down  by  the 
river. 

*  *  The  service  was  very  quiet.  Before  the  Lord's 
Supper,  Meng  baptized  two  children.  As  the 
little  girl  went  out,  I  saw  her  stop  in  the  door- 
way to  explain  to  a  little  friend  all  about  it.  The 
friend  was  anxiously  scrutinizing  her  forehead  to 
see  if  any  marks  were  left  there  from  this  won- 
derful performance.  Ewing's  talk  was  an 
'Awake'— how  much  they  all  needed  it!  For 
Tang  Feng,  you  will  perhaps  pray— and  many 
times  you  will  hear  from  me  about  it. 

"At  noon,  we  were  on  the  road  for  i5oli — 
fifty  miles  to  our  next  point  of  attack.  That 
afternoon  we  could  go  only  to  An  Ping,  where 
we  found  a  most  sumptuous  inn,  for  An  Ping  is 
on  the  main   road  from   Paotingfu,   southeast. 


246  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

We  ate  heartily,  enjoyed  a  good  wash  up  and 
went  to  bed  in  great  peace  of  mind.  The 
scenery  thus  far  is  like  the  prairie-land  of — say — 
Illinois.  Trees  scattered  everywhere — little  ham- 
lets, one  and  a  half  to  two  miles  apart — re- 
minded me  of  home.  Deep  furrows  show  the 
divisions  of  countless  little  holdings.  Pigs  are 
everywhere,  rooting  for  stray  peanuts,  for  the 
country  furnishes  huge  crops  of  that  nut. 

"  Friday,  December  i6th. — We  were  up  before 
six  this  morning  for  100  li  (thirty-three  miles)  is 
a  long  trip  for  China  in  the  short  days  of  the 
year.  Inns  in  our  part  of  the  world  furnish  no 
early  breakfast,  so  we  did  as  every  one  else 
did  and  went  without.  On  the  way  there  were 
a  few  cakes  to  buy,  but  it  was  eighteen  miles  on 
an  empty  stomach  before  we  stopped  at  Cow's 
Head  village.  We  were  too  tired  to  see  any  one 
— so  locked  ourselves  in  the  room.  Still,  we 
were  not  alone,  for  in  one  corner  a  donkey  was 
taking  his  meal.  We  ate  flour  strings  and  some 
bread — not  much  for  the  rest  of  the  day!  In  the 
distance  as  we  started,  we  caught  the  western 
mountains,  west  of  Paotingfu.  The  country 
grew  flat,  and  while  crossing  a  river,  wild  geese 
were  all  about  us  in  the  wheat,  eating  the  green 
sprouts  of  winter  wheat.  Just  after  sunset,  we 
reached  Chang  Teng,  found  a  comfortable  inn 
and  sat  ourselves  down  to  a  good  dinner. 

"Saturday,  December  17th. — It  had  been  our 
plan  to  visit  both  stations — Ch'ing  Liang  Ch'eng 
and  Tien  Ke  Chuang — but  in  the  morning,  we 
heard  that  a  theatre  festival  was  to  begin  at  the 
first  place  and  we  knew  that  every  one's  relatives 
would  flock  in  and  expect  board,  so  that  our 
presence  would  be  rather  unpopular.  Accord- 
ingly, we  started — twenty  li — to  Tien  Ke  Chuang 
— and  arrived  about  noon.  This  station  is  in  a 
very  bad  way,  for  the  oldest  Christian  and  his 


Life  and  Work  in  China  247 

family  have  been  shown  to  be  in  the  church 
from  mercenary  motives.  His  attitude  has  been 
very  repellent,  and  though  we  led  in  the  Lord's 
Supper  at  his  house,  it  was  woefully  chilly,  and 
we  were  only  too  glad  to  depart  on  our  ten  mile 
jaunt  for  Paotingfu  and  home.  About  5  p.  M. 
we  reached  the  compound  and  our  journey  was 
done. 

"Now,  dear  friends,  you  have  patiently  passed 
over  the  tour  with  us.  It  is  for  you  as  it  was  for 
us — just  a  glimpse.  I  suppose  you  will  never 
again  be  called  on  to  take  such  a  trip.  Hereafter, 
one  spot  or  two  places  will  be  studied  more  in 
detail — and  as  the  little  stones  shall  be  fitted  in  to 
fill  the  huge  gaps  between  the  skeleton  frame- 
work now  constructed,  we  shall  hope,  with  you 
to  see  the  building  rising  into  true  and  just  pro- 
portions— beautiful  as  the  day.  Until  such  time, 
we  must  patiently  watch,  study  and  pray.  Facts 
will  be  hard  for  you  to  make  real  to  yourselves. 
We  will  help  you  all  we  can.  Success  is  sure 
and  the  reward  beyond  computation." 

He  felt  that  some  apology  was  called  for  by 
this  serial  and  after  the  last  installment  had  gone 
off,  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Mills: 

"As  I  said  to  Mrs.  Pitkin  when  I  finished  the 
last  letter  to  the  church,  'I  am  glad  that  "tour" 
is  finished.'  We  suppose  you  will  utter  the  same 
sentiment.  My  idea,  however,  was  that  so 
many  things  have  come  in  between  the  beginning 
and  end  of  the  recital  that  often  it  was  hard  to 
'stick  to  the  text'  and  not  leave  you  all  flounder- 
ing in  a  town  far  away  from  Paotingfu.  To 
know  that  you  are  all  safely  back,  and  that  I 
could  persist  in  a  plan  to  the  end  were  my  rea- 
sons for  joy.     Likewise,  that  the  church  would 


248  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

not  be  further  bored.  Seriously — I  think  it  is  a 
mistake  to  drag  a  thing  out  that  way.  It  may 
have  been  necessary  this  one  time  in  order  con- 
secutively to  place  the  whole  (or  practically  so) 
field  before  the  church.  Hereafter,  '  continued 
in  our  next '  articles  will  be  rigorously  opposed, 
unless  an  exception  may  be  made  for  some  very 
important  two  letter  subject." 

''Some  very  important  two  letter  subject!" — 
He  wrote  but  two  more  letters  to  the  Pilgrim 
Church  before  the  end. 


VIII 

«THE  GOLDEN  EVENING  BRIGHTENS  IN  THE 
^  WEST" 

For  all  the  saints  who  from  their  labors  rest, 
Who  Thee  by  faith  before  the  world  confessed, 
Thy  Name,  O  Jesus,  be  forever  blest. 
Alleluia !     Alleluia ! 

Thou  wast  their  Rock,  their  Fortress,  and  their  Might; 
Thou,  Lord,  their  Captain  in  the  well-fought  fight ; 
Thou,  in  the  darkness  drear,  their  one  true  Light. 
Alleluia !     Alleluia  ! 

O  may  Thy  soldiers,  faithful,  true,  and  bold, 
Fight  as  the  saints  who  nobly  fought  of  old, 
And  win  with  them  the  victor's  crown  of  gold. 
Alleluia !     Alleluia ! 

And  when  the  strife  is  fierce,  the  warfare  long, 
Steals  on  the  ear  the  distant  triumph-song. 
And  hearts  are  brave  again,  and  arms  are  strong. 
Alleluia  I     Alleluia ! 

The  golden  evening  brightens  in  the  west ; 
Soon,  soon  to  faithful  warriors  cometh  rest; 
Sweet  is  the  calm  of  Paradise  the  blest. 
Alleluia !     Alleluia ! 

— How. 

*'I  SHALL  take  my  second  language  examina- 
tion the  coming  May,"  wrote  Pitkin  in  his  first 
church  letter  of  1900.     ''  It  is  a  weary  trudge- 

249 


250  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

and  the  end  seems  far  away."  But  it  did  not 
tarry  as  long  as  he  supposed.  In  six  months  he 
was  beyond  the  *' weary  trudge"  of  Chinese 
study,  beyond  all  weariness,  in  the  land  where 
rest  and  work  are  one,  where  those  who  have 
been  wearied  here 

"  Shall  work  for  an  age  at  a  sitting  and  never  be  tired  at  all." 

But  his  road  thither  led  up  a  dizzy  steep,  through 
peril,  toil  and  pain. 

In  the  same  letter,  Horace  gives  some  account 
of  the  "annual  big  meeting,"  and  also  of  the 
Boxer  cloud  that  was  fast  overspreading  the 
sky: 

"Around  Christmas  time,  we  held  the  semi- 
annual 'big  meeting' — when  delegates  from  the 
outstations  came  up  for  a  three  days'  convention. 
When  the  area  of  one's  parish  is  equal  to  Con- 
necticut, Delaware  and  Rhode  Island — or  to 
Massachusetts — or  more  than  New  Jersey — why, 
it  is  necessary  to  encourage  the  flock  to  see  each 
other's  faces  once  every  six  months.  When  I 
am  able  to  do  more,  we  hope  to  have  the  family 
gathering  every  four  months.  Then,  too,  our 
helpers  are  so  few  and  we  are  able  to  be  out  in 
the  country  so  little,  it  is  doubly  important  to 
have  those  who  are  fit  to  be  received  on  proba- 
tion or  from  probation  wish  to  enter  the  church, 
come  together  that  they  may  be  examined  by  us 
all,  and  if  fit,  take  the  steps  before  a  representa- 
tive body  of  our  church  members.  Finally,  we 
precede  the  convention  by  a  three  days'  meeting 
of  the  *  Discuss  Affairs  Society ' — or  Board  of 
Deacons — or  more  exactly — Session — and  after  a 


"The  Golden  Evening  Brightens"    251 

full  discussion  of  the  coming  six  months'  work, 
appointment  of  committees  and  arrangement  of 
posts  for  the  helpers,  we  give  the  convention  a 
resume  of  the  actions  taken,  ask  for  ratification 
of  the  same  and  finally  discuss  with  them  trouble- 
some points.  Some  sixty-five  delegates  attended 
— a  large  showing  for  cold  winter.  Three  were 
from  our  southern  outpost — four  days'  walk 
away.  Sunday,  Monday,  and  Tuesday  meetings 
were  held  morning,  afternoon  and  evening.  In 
between  times,  the  helpers  and  Mr.  Ewing  and  1 
were  examining  candidates  for  probation  and 
church  membership.  The  church  members — 
eleven  in  number — were  received  on  Sunday,  and 
I,  for  the  first  time  in  China,  read  the  form  of 
doctrine,  baptized  them  and  assisted  at  the  Lord's 
Supper.  Wednesday,  some  twenty  were  re- 
ceived to  probation — and  two  who  were  delayed 
for  further  examination  entered  the  church. 
What  a  contrast  in  those  who  stood  on  the 
platform  before  an  audience  of  some  four  hun- 
dred that  Sunday  noon!  There  was  an  old 
woman,  who  eight  years  ago  cursing  and  reviling 
would  turn  her  back  in  disgust  on  Miss  Morrill 
as  she  entered  her  home  in  the  country.  Here 
was  a  lad  of  fourteen,  bright  as  a  steel  trap, 
already  prepared  for  Tungcho,  brought  up  in 
our  elder  pastor's  family,  away  from  heathenism 
and  is  the  product  of  second  generation  Chris- 
tianity. And  between  them! — the  range  of  once 
heathen  hearts,  now  more  or  less  lit  by  the  rays 
of  Christian  truth, — but  all  young  and  old,  facing 
the  world  of  sin  and  persecution  in  their  villages 
in  defense  of  Him,  the  one  Lord  and  Master — of 
Pilgrim  Church,  of  China — of  the  world! 

"  In  the  discussion  on  Self-Support,  ouryounger 
pastor  said:  'I  imagine  a  mule  and  cart  going 
along  a  hilly  road,  while  the  driver  and  friends 
help  by  pushing  the  cart  from  behind.     Progress 


252  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

is  slow  but  steady.  Suddenly  a  steep  pitch  is 
reached.  The  cart  is  stuck — the  mule  can  do 
nothing,  strain  as  he  may,  and  the  men — what  of 
them  ?  In  desperation  do  they  push  the  harder? 
Oh,  no!  They  as  one  man  pile  into  the  cart  and 
urge  the  mule  by  blows  and  shouts  to  move  on. 
So  it  is  with  the  church  members  of  China.  The 
cart  is  the  church,  the  mule  is  the  foreign  mis- 
sionaries and  the  ones  behind  are  the  members. 
They  do  valiant  work  at  pushing  while  things 
move.  But  let  there  come  a  time  of  want — a 
time  when  after  full  discussion  of  the  needs  of 
the  mission  is  completed  and  $1.00  is  asked  from 
the  churches  of  America  with  an  answer  of  sixty 
cents — when  the  hill  has  been  reached — then! 
then  the  members  scramble  in  on  the  church  and 
say  to  the  mule  "  pull  us!  pull  us!  "  '  This  may 
give  a  hint  of  how  nail  heads  were  hit  in  the 
discussions. 

*'The  one  absorbing  topic  up  here  in  north 
China  is  the  'Boxer'  question.  Of  course  you 
have  seen  full  accounts  in  the  papers  about  the 
troubles,  yet  a  word  or  two  on  them  may  be  of 
interest. 

"China  is  full  ofspfret  pocjptips  under  varif^ns 
nam^s.^  They  ui^^^^^i&t  entirely  of  a  political 
nat  Jfe^^  Uesinng  t^start_a__reyxLLattoti  for  further- 
in  gnnT5tr'-tywft--?mterby  some  pretext  or  other, 
perhaps  simulating  great  patriotism,  they  attack 
missionaries  and  the  converts,  the  result  of  the 
hated  'foreign  devils''  religion.  Not  daring  to 
attack  the  missionary,  perhaps,  they  wreak  venge- 
ance on  his  converts.  Such  was  the  massacre 
of  the  English  missionaries  on  or  near  the  coast 
in  the  south  some  years  ago;  such  was  the  great 
rebellion  of  the  Yang  Tse  Kiang  before  that  time, 
and  such  is  the  cause  of  the  wide-spread  troubles 
near  here  to-day.  The  banners  of  the  'Boxer' 
and   *  Big  Sword '  societies  are  inscribed  with 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    253 

'  Defense  of  the  present  Dynasty  ';  *  Death  to  the 
Foreigners';  'Extermination  of  Foreign  Relig- 
ions.' These  two  societies  have  been  spreading 
through  Shan-tung  (province  south  of  us)  and 
somewhat  through  the  south  of  our  province, 
Chih-li.  The  members  claim  supernatural  power 
granted  by  their  divinity,  who  lives  in  a  mountain 
southeast  somewhere.  By  this  power,  they  are 
rendered  invulnerable  and  to  their  leaders  is  given 
power  to  raise  the  dead.  They  go  through  gym- 
nastir.^gjLgfc^ses  and  prgbahly'ttrr  Ihrow  Ttrgm- 
selves  into  some  sort  of  trance.  "By  these'  powers, 
a  man~Wttl~liuld  uuL  his  aim,  any  one  may  strike 
it  with  a  sword,  but  the  arm  is  uninjured,  in 
past  affairs  with  soldiers,  where  some  were 
killed,  the  story  goes  that  by  a  few  passes  in 
the  air,  the  leaders  raised  the  dead  to  life.  The 
curious  thing  abpnt  tho  Rnxrr  and  Rig  S^^^or?^ 
Societies  is  tnat  the  scene  of  their  actions  is_right 

ITTe  not  11  ke 


bandits  coming  down  on  forays.  Each  village 
has  its  own  branch.  The  societies  have  been 
growing  for  years — secretly,  without  disturbance. 
Suddenly,  last  fall,  they  were  heard  from,  intend- 
ing to  attack  the  large  station  of  our  Board  at 
Pang  Chuang,  where  are  Drs.  Smith,  Potter,  Peck, 
the  Misses  Porter  and  Wyckoff  and  a  large  sta- 
tion plant.  That  the  uprising  was  fostered  from 
Peking  is  more  than  probable.  That  the  oppor- 
tunity was  excellent  because  of  failure  of  crops 
and  great  drought  is  very  apparent.  The  com- 
m on  people  flockedjto  the  standards,  and  whereas^ 
the_societies_may_have  at  first  had  a  true  motive, 
that  was^sbqnobscj^iredrhThe  torrent  of  seekgrs 
aTtW^'^pTulTdeFjnd  pilTagenthat^lnmp  pniipng  in . 
By^rompt  action  of  the  Consul  at  Tientsin, 
soldiers  were  sent  and  the  threatened  attack 
averted.  Howeyer^-the  Christians  began  to  suf- 
fer.    Families  had  either  to  pay  heavy  ransoms 


254  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

orbfi--pilIagecl__Rai'ely-wasany  violence  done  to 
persons.  Again,  strange  to  say  Roman  Catholics 
and  Protestants  have  suffered  alike.  In  the  past, 
usually,  Roman  Catholics  have  had  the  harder 
time,  for  the  priests  take  up  and  prosecute  law 
cases  for  their  converts.  This  creates  great 
enmity  and  when  occasion  offers,  the  return 
blow  is  given  with  great  severity.  But  now 
neither  one  nor  the  other  was  spared.  The  Pek- 
ing officials  did  no  more  than  they  were  com- 
pelled to  do.  They  changed  governors  but  the 
new  one  is  as  bad  as  the  old.  The  missionaries 
have  been  toiling  day  and  night  at  Pang  Chuang, 
writing  innumerable  letters  to  officials  every- 
where, begging  for  soldiers  and  demanding  help, 
hearing  the  tales  of  refugees,  and  keeping  our 
Minister  Conger  at  Peking  fully  informed.  He, 
alas!  hoodwinked  by  the  Chinese  reports,  is 
growing  weary  over  the  full  details  sent  by 
Arthur  H.  Smith  and  expresses  himself  in  Peking 
as  'bored'  by  the  verboseness  of  the  reports! 
Thus,  from  a  small  uprising,  the  riot  has  spread 
until  all  western  Shan-tung  is  involved.  And 
not  only  that,  but  into  Chih-li  it  has  come,  until 
societies  are  being  formed  within  twenty-five 
miles  of  us  to  the  south,  and  encircling  the  city, 
the  plague  has  spread  to  the  north  of  us.  *  They 
say '  that  the  members  are  in  Paotingfu  city  itself 
and  report  had  it  that  our  compound  and  the 
Presbyterian  compound  were  to  be  wiped  out 
the  eighth  or  eighteenth  of  this  month.  To-day 
is  the  ninth  so  I  guess  we  shall  survive  the  eight- 
eenth as  well!  What  can  the  government  do? 
Granting  it  is  not  in  league  with  the  leaders,  it  is 
doubtful  if  the  soldiers  would  successfully  re- 
sist the  societies.  They  are  too  much  of  the 
same  mind.  However,  as  often  happens,  the 
societies  have  overstepped  the  mark.  Sidney 
Brooks  of  the  English  society  in  southwest  Shan- 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    255 

tung  while  returning  from  Christmas  with  his 
sister,  just  out  from  home  and  newly  married  to 
his  colleague,  was  attacked,  brutally  treated,  such 
as  having  a  rope  passed  through  his  nose  and 
being  led  around  the  city  for  hours,  and  finally 
killed.     This  incident  was  too  much  even  for  the 
foreign  ministers.     Let  the  Chinese  be  plmidered 
—even  killed!  what  m^ISrrn^nrWTirgl^gr-itish 
suMecfis  inmder^dT^eaJiiaugli-Bdiaiii^ 
x\rvw\l[uTg-tu-go-lTr^^     it,  she  will  make  pro- 
test errwgh  to  h^.v.£^-ft-dectdedly  deterrent  effect 
on  the  Boxers  and  their  friends  at  Court  in  Pek- 
ing.    Consequently,  the  fire  has  been  put  under 
hatches  and  is  at  present  merely  smouldering. 
In  the  meantime.  South  Chih-li  has  been  entered, 
and   one   of   the  best  outstations   of   the  Pang 
Chuang  station   has  been   sacked.     The_pastor 
and  family  were  in  hiding,  having  received  pre- 
viouT'warning,  but  the  chapel  and  school  were 
completely  wrecked  and  the  pastor's  all  was  lost, 
windows  and  doors  even  being  carried  off  while 
casings  were  afterwards  dug  out.     Ia_spite  of 
threats  to  kill  him  at  sight,  he  and  his  family 
finaIT}ran-ived  here  and  have  settled  down  with 
us  to  waitTor  peace.    Up  to  two  months  ago,  the 
statistics  were  that  in  Shan-tung  over  300  villages 
had  been  sacked  or  made  to  pay  ransom  and  in 
Chih-li,  some  seventy-five  or  more.     Affairs  have 
reached  such  a  pass  that  rich  heathen  are  treated 
as  the  Christians  are— the  robbers'  cupidity  stands 
back  for  nothing.     Proceedings  are  ahke  in  most 
cases.     Warnings  are  served  on  individuals  or 
villages.     It  is   either  ransom   (say  I300  for  a 
small  village)  or  plunder  or  both.      If  plunder, 
everything  is  taken  and  sold  at  any  price  to  the 
bidders  standing  around.     A  cart  worth  ^30  gold 
for  ninety  cents;  grain  worth  three  or  four  dollars 
for  so  many  cents.     A  mule  for  twenty  cents. 
Windows,  doors,  casings,  even  thatches  of  roofs— 


256  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

everything  is  sold  and  carried  off.  And  in  many 
cases  bedding  and  all  extra  clothing,  etc.,  all  are 
gone  and  that  with  the  thermometer  at  zero  and 
the  coldest  winter  known  for  years.  The  only 
thingdon£j2^Llb£-afGaals  is  to  keep  quiet,  or  go 
te-TTTeet  the  robbers  and  give  them  a  feast  in  re- 
turn for  which,  temporarily,  they  move  to  the 
next  county,  giving  the  official  chance  to  report 
that  either  he  has  pacified  the  villains  or  that  there 
have  never  been  any  Boxers  at  all  in  his  circuit. 
To  verify  such  reports,  many  times  officials  have 
passed  from  village  to  village  gravely  taking  the 
affidavits  of  the  Boxer  leaders  that  no  Boxers 
exist  in  the  district.  And  the  end  ?  These  re- 
ports are  shown  our  Minister  Conger  at  Peking, 
and  as  they  don't  tally  with  Arthur  H.  Smith's 
{Chinese  Characteristics)  tales,  he  grows  weary 
of  said  Arthur  H.  Smith's  reports,  calls  them 
verbose,  is  afraid  the  writer  may  be  a  little  turned 
in  the  head,  and  seems  to  agree  with  those  who 
would  say  the  missionaries  are  timid  folk,  listen- 
ers to  idle  tales  and  general  mischief-makers. 
Just  lately  has  come  confirmation  of  belief  that 
Peking  has  been  at  the  bottom  of  this.  The  late 
edict  of  the  Empress  Dowager  in  which  she 
covertly  espouses  the  Boxers'  cause  and  warns 
officials  to  discriminate  between  Boxers  and 
ruffians  (which  means  'count  all  as  Boxers')  is 
the  most  dangerous  paper  against  missions  that 
has  appeared  for  a  long  time.  Following  on  its 
heels  appears  the  authentic  news  that  the  new 
governor  of  Shan-tung,  though  supplied  with 
sufficient  troops,  was  warned  from  the  begin- 
ning by  a  secret  edict  to  be  careful  about  arrests. 
This  he  told  the  missionaries  after  the  publication 
of  the  public  edict.  Such  a  warning  in  the  East 
means  'no  arrests! '—and  that  is  just  what  has 
happened.  For  the  moment,  the  fire  is  out  of 
sight— when  it  will  again  appear,  we  know  not." 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    257 

He  takes  up  the  same  subject  in  his  "  Round 
Robin  "  letter  to  the  Yale  men  of  his  time  who 
were  in  the  missionary  work  in  Asia.  There 
were  shadows  enough  over  his  heart  but  he 
smiled  above  them  and  wrote  in  his  old  playful 
vein : 

*'Five  sheets  (and  no  pillow-case). 

''Paotingfu,  April  2y,  1900. 

"Well  you  fellows  may  think  I  am  not  worth 
keeping  on  the  list  of  respectability— and  per- 
haps I  am  not.     What  are  two  months  though— 
when  you  are  busy  getting  ready  to  send  off  to 
America  the  liveliest  letter  you  ever  did  see— with 
a  postscript  tacked  on— for  it's  true,  Mrs.  Pitkm 
and  Horace  have  gone  off  and  left  me  here  for 
seven  months.     I  took  them  down  to  Shanghai 
to  sail  April  7th,  and  had  no  time  to  run  up  to 
see  Loby,  for  in  six  hours  after  they  left,  I  left 
also  on    a    homeward-bound   boat.     Now,   the 
house  is  immense  and  1  don't  like  it  one  bit,  but 
don't  you  care,  think  of  the  poor '  celebrates '  who 
don't  have  seven  months  hence  to  look  forward 
to.     My  colleague  here,  Ewing,  goes  off  for  the 
summer  to  the  shore,  so  I  must  take  my  turn  and 
look  after  things  here.     It  doesn't  pay  to  have  a 
child  here  through  the  heated  season  and  as  Pei- 
tai-ho  is   pretty  hard   pickings  for  one  woman 
alone,    it    seemed  wise    for  Mrs.    P.   to  take  a 
chance    for    passes    via    Southern   Pacific   Rail- 
road and  go  East  to  let  them  see  the  finest  baby 
goinff.     (Did  any  one  speak  .J^)     The  Galleys  (Y. 
M.  C.  A.  Secretary  of  Tientsin)  will   have  our 
house  and  if  I  get  a  few  weeks,  I'll  board  with 
them      Dr.    Hodge,    of    Philadelphia,    and   Mrs. 
Hodge  (nee  Sinclair)  will  be  right  next  door— so 
we  shall  have  a  merry  party. 


258  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

"We're  getting  the  rumors  of  war  here  all 
right.  You  know  these  wretched  'Boxer'  or 
'Big  Sword  Society'  troubles  in  Shan-tung  have 
been  making  life  miserable  all  winter.  The  so- 
ciety has  a  fixed  purpose  to  root  out  all  foreign 
devils  and  exterminate  their  religion  and  con- 
verts. From  plundering  Christians,  they  ad- 
vanced to  whole  villages  or  even  single  rich 
heathen,  demanding  ransom  or  utter  wiping  out. 
The  usual  proceeding  was  a  complete  plundering 
— most  things  taken  and  sold  to  bystanders  on 
the  spot — carts  worth  $30,  for  twenty  cents,  rice, 
everything,  even  door  frames  and  roofs,  com- 
plete ruin.  Not  many  Christians  lost  their  lives 
— but  in  this  severest  winter  in  years,  to  lose 
bedclothes  and  everything  in  this  world  is  not 
easy.  ^  Our  stations  in  Shan-tung  at  times  have 
been  in  hourly  peril,  but  now  the  worst  is  over 
and  in  the  '  unquiet  quiet '  they  are  trying  to  start 
their  station  schools  again.  The  whole  thing  has 
been  under  secret  patronage  from  Peking — using 
the  Boxers  as  catspaws.  But  when  the  claw 
got  an  English  missionary,  and  brutally  mur- 
dered him,  the  cat  had  to  go — temporarily — into 
retirement.  Lately,  the  movement  has  been 
spreading  up  into  our  province  until  we  are  sur- 
rounded and  even  districts  north  of  Peking  are 
infested.  The  basis  of  the  power  lies  in  a  claim 
to  supernatural  leading  by  which  they  are  ren- 
dered invulnerable.  This  is  a  proof  of  their 
destiny.  Sword-cuts  on  the  arms  are  repelled — 
running  on  planted  spears  is  only  to  rebound  again 
— 'drive  the  foreigners  into  the  sea!'  Soldiers 
are  scattered  along  in  the  south,  so  that  is  quiet. 
IBut  near  here,  the  Boxers  and  Roman  Catholics 
have  fought  and  managed  to  kill  some  thirty 
Boxers  and  one  Catholic  before  the  soldiers  ar- 
rived. Now,  only  fifteen  miles  from  here,  Box- 
ers are  assembling  in  great  numbers  and  though 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    259 

watched  by  a  handful  of  troops,  are  bound  to 
sack  a  big  Roman  Catholic  station  near  by— then 
another  and  then  Paotingfu.     Where  we  come  in 
on  this  deal  is  not  easy  to  see.     At  present,  the 
city  sends  us  fifteen  soldiers  a  night  for  our  guard. 
Warships    are    at   Tientsin— but   if    any   troops 
should  be  landed,  it  would  be  too  hot  for  us  here 
at  once.     Present  status  is  probably  best.     LnOhe 
Chinese-Japanese  war,  when  the  Japs  sunk  the 
Chinese  men-of-war,  the  Provincial  Warrior  here 
called   arithe   other  officials   in   and  suggested 
stirring  up  the  populace  to  exterminate  the  for- 
eigners here  as  a  little  '  give  face'  act  to  the  Chi- 
nese.    The  others  dissuaded  the  old  blood-thirsty 
futlow   by  telling   him  we  were   not  Japs— but 
members  of  a  friendly  nation.     Still,  now  we  are 
only  200  miles  from  the  coast  by  railroad  if  haste 
should  be  necessary.     I'm  awfully  sorry  I  haven't 
got  time  to  tack  valuable  and  instructive  notes, 
annotations,  etc.,  on  the  backs  of  you  fellows' 
letters.     I  must  leave  that  to  one  worthier  than 
I.     Ah,  well,  I  remember  that  expressive  gesture 
each  time  the  cap  of  the  ubiquitous  fountain  pen 
came  off.     It  was  a  shame— that  typewriter— to 
spoil  the  temper  of  one—'  Don't  bother  me,  Harry 
—can't  you  see  I  am  writing  a  Bible  Reading  on 
"peace"?'     You  ought  to  have  seen  'whiskers' 
this  summer— sitting  on  our  porch  at  Pei-tai-ho— 
drinking  tea,  cracking  stories  and  singing  the 
same  weird  melodies  as  of  yore!     1  hope  to  see 
Loby  this  summer— and  the  rest  of  you  ?— as  you 
please!    Now  for  our  work.     Language  still— 
and  yet  not  so  very— it  won't  down— an  ever 

present  '  poor ' Oh,  to  be  in  India  a  Y.  M.  C. 

A.ing !  I  have  the  boys'  boarding-school— twenty 
boys— to  run  and  though  I  haven't  preached  yet, 
I've  helped  in  communion  services  and  baptisms. 
Things  move  along  in  about  the  same  way.  No 
touring  has  been  possible  because  of  the  disturbed 


26o  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

condition  of  the  country.  The  most  marked 
thing  in  our  work  this  winter  has  been  a  few 
days'  blessing  for  the  more  active  Christians 
here.  At  Peking,  a  very  strong  revival  swept  the 
Methodist  College.  Then  at  our  College  at 
Tungcho  was  a  tremendous  awakening — exer- 
cises all  abandoned  for  three  weeks — and  finally 
to  let  the  men  down  to  their  studies,  they  were 
sent  to  the  other  stations  for  a  few  days'  visit. 
Three  came  here  and  we  had  certainly  a  blessed 
time. 

"  Here — here — I  must  stop — it's  after  midnight 
and  I  may  have  some  of  my  sentences  sent  ring- 
ing down  the  ages  with  blue  underlining. 
'What  lady  done  that?' 

''The  Lord  be  with  you  all,  boys.  He  has 
been  very  good  to  me— and  I  thank  Him." 

One  of  the  shadows  of  the  spring  whose  ra- 
diant lining  he  saw  before  the  end  was  the  de- 
parture of  Mrs.  Pitkin  and  the  little  boy  for 
America,  referred  to  in  the  above  letter.  The 
reasons  for  this  step  were  given  in  his  last  letter 
to  the  Pilgrim  Church,  dated  May  7,  1900: 

"  A  month  ago,  I  sent  to  you  all  one  of  the 
liveliest,  fullest  of  news  and  most  up-to-date  letters 
ever  despatched  to  you  by  us.  There  was  a 
'P.  S.'  attached  containing  a  world  of  interest. 
It  is  true  that  the  letter,  plus  the  postscript,  may 
be  delayed  in  reaching  you,  but  sooner  or  later 
you  ought  to  receive  with  glad  welcome,  Mrs. 
Pitkin  and  Horace,  mailed  via  Vancouver  with 
Paotingfu's  compliments.  What  a  time  we  did 
have  deciding  whether  Mrs.  Pitkin  had  best  go. 
We  left  Paotingfu,  March  30th,  and  I  escorted 
them  to  Shanghai,  they  sailing  thence  at  mid- 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    261 

night,  April  8th,  while  I  returned  northward  a 
few  hours  later.     So  here  is  one  Pilgrim  abroad, 
alone  in  solitary  grandeur!    The  house,   let  me 
add,   is  just  about  ten  times  too  big  and  very 
vacant  in  its  stare.     But  Mrs.  Pitkin  promises  to 
come  back  in  October.     Our  cramped  quarters 
and  other  conditions  have  told  on  Mrs.  Pitkin  s 
health  to  such  an  extent  that  we  feel  only  the  rest 
of  some  months  in  Ohio  will  completely  restore 
her.     '  An  ounce  of  prevention  '—this  is— and  we 
thank  the  good  Lord  for  providing  it.     We  be- 
lieve the  renewed  strength  will  render  large  in- 
terest on  the  investment  of  time  and  money. 
And  won't  it  make  China  seem  near  to  you  all! 
And  America  to  us!    There's  only  one  objection 
to  it— it  will  take  away  from  our  heads  the  haios 
that  some  of  you  have  persisted  in  placing  there 
and  vou  will  be  disappointed  in  finding  us  to  be 
'  iust  like  common  folks.'     '  Huh !  nothing  partic- 
ularly like  martyrdom  in  this  foreign  work!    you 
will  say.     And  you're  right!    We  have  been  try- 
ing to  tell  you  that  right  along,  and  we  are  send- 
in!  this  said  letter  and  postscript  home  direct,  and 
not  through  some  dead  letter  office  because  we 
don't  believe  in  martyrs  either!     We  I,  perhaps 
all  this  will  come  rather  late  in  the  day-I  do  not 
know  exactly  Mrs.  Pitkin's  plans.     However,  it 
is  official  authorization-and  as  such  may  go  on 


record." 


The  anticipation  of  trouble  and  danger  did  not 
enter  into  Pitkin's  mind  in  arranging  for  the  re- 
turn of  Mrs.  Pitkin  and  little  Horace.  The  mis- 
sionaries in  North  China  knew  that  a  storm  was 
brewing  but  they  did  not  anticipate  any  unusual 
personal  peril.  Mrs.  Pitkin's  health  and  the  con- 
dition  of  the  work  which  would  keep  Pitkin  at 


262  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

the  station  all  summer,  an  arrangement  not  desir- 
able for  Mrs.  Pitkin  and  the  boy,  were  the  de- 
termining elements.  After  she  left  in  April,  and 
Mr.  Ewing  in  May,  the  only  members  of  the 
Congregational  Mission  in  Paotingfu  were  Mr. 
Pitkin  and  Miss  Morrill  and  Miss  Gould,  so  that 
his  hands  were  full  of  work,  "in  the  fall  of 
1899,"  writes  Mrs.  Pitkin,  "he  took  over  the  en- 
tire control  of  the  Boys'  Boarding  School,  and  took 
the  responsibility  of  running. church  accounts,  ar- 
ranging for  prayer-meeting  topics,  leaders,  etc. — 
took  a  Sunday-school  class — Sunday  afternoon  he 
spent  with  his  boys — talking  to  them  and  pray- 
ing and  singing — a  meeting  much  enjoyed  by  him 
and  of  great  help  to  them.  Friday  evening  he 
spent  with  them,  and  he  also  had  the  charge 
of  their  morning  devotions  each  day.  After 
Mr.  Ewing  left  in  May,  he  took  over  all  the 
work  and  he  was  very  happy  in  it.  My  very 
last  letter  told  of  his  leading  prayer-meeting 
and  how  easily  his  tongue  formed  the  words 
he  wanted.  He  was  planning  to  preach  his  first 
sermon  the  next  Sabbath,  and  I  believe  God 
gave  him  that  privilege  before  he  laid  down  his 
life." 

Yet  though  he  went  back  from  saying  good- 
bye with  no  anticipation  of  unusual  peril,  he  went 
with  an  undersense  of  expectation.  Mr.  R.  R. 
Gailey  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work  in  China,  an  old 
Princeton  football  man,  writes  in  some  remin- 
iscences of  his  friend,  of  his  perception  of  this  in 
Pitkin: 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    263 

"I  distinctly  remember  when  talking  over  the 
problem  of  investing  our  time  and  talents  for  God 
in  China,  his  saying,  '  1  tell  you,  Gailey,  I  haven  t 
becrun  to  work  out  here  yet.'     He  was  a  man, 
who  when  home,  was  accustomed  to   movmg 
fast  at  whatever  he  was  engaged  and  I  am  sure  it 
was  a  great  trial  to  his  soul,  as  it  is  to  many  an 
one  like  him,  to  have  to  wait  years  before  being 
able  to  be  free  to  take  up  his  work  with  his  usual 
energy  and  spirit.     ...    The  summer  of  99. 
we  had  the  privilege  of  spending  together  at  the 
shore,  but  it  was  much  broken  into  so  far  as  free- 
dom for  visiting  and  hours  of  conversation  and 
walks  were  concerned,  as  I  was  much  occupied 
with  the  care  of  our  little  baby  and  his  mother 
The   new  constant  cares  together  with  a  hard 
year's  work  were  too  much  for  my  strong  consti- 
tution to  bear  and  October,  '99,  and  a  week  of 
November  was  spent  in  bed  with  typhoid  fever. 
How  was  I  to  be  looked  after  in  such  circum- 
stances ?    One  day,  without  a  word  of  notice  to 
us   Horace  bounced  into  the  room  with  his  suit- 
case and  said  he  had  come  down  to  take  care  of 
me  for  a  while  and  give  Mrs.  Gailey  a  rest.     He 
nut  her  and  the  baby  off  in  another  room  and  he 
iust  stayed  by  me  for  a  solid  week  at  the  time 
when  I  was  needing  attention  the  most.     How 
we  enjoyed  him  and  often  we  had  many  a  good 
lauo-h  that  did  more  good  than  the  medicine,  lam 
sure      Now,  we  were  not  so  much  surprised  at 
seeing  this  expression  of  his  kindness  and  friend- 
ship as  we  were  impressed  with  the  spirit  of  un- 
failing loyalty  to  his  friends  and  his  willingness 
to  leave  his  family,  his  work  and  studies  to  come 
and  look  after  me  when  sick.     We  did  not  need 
any  further  evidence  but  after  that  we  felt  abso- 
lutely  sure    of    our    relationship.      .      .     •     ^ 
1900,   he  was  very  naturally  feeling  the  separa- 
tion from  his  wife  but  I  hope  1  will  not  be  intau- 


264  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

tious  if  I  say  that  there  was  more  than  the  ordi- 
nary far-away  look  in  his  eyes  as  we  saw  him  for 
what  proved  the  last  time.  He  was  quiet  and 
thoughtful  and  the  laugh  was  more  or  less  me- 
chanical. It  was  so  noticeable  in  him  for  he  was 
always  just  the  opposite,  but  we  tried  to  make 
his  call  as  free  as  possible  from  the  thoughts  that 
were  taking  fuller  possession  of  his  mind  every 
hour  and  mile  that  separated  him  from  those  who 
were  more  than  hfe  itself  to  him.  It  was  unmis- 
takable that  the  responsibilities  as  well  as  the 
possibilities  of  what  was  awaiting  him  in  Pao- 
tingfu  were  weighing  on  his  mind  then,  but  there 
was  nothing  but  clear  obedience  to  his  duty.  Be- 
fore leaving  my  house  for  the  train  for  Paotingfu, 
we  were  talking  of  the  blessings  of  home  out 
here  in  China  and  the  suffering  when  those  we 
love  have  for  one  reason  and  another  to  be  sepa- 
rated from  us.  He  felt  it  doubly.  He  relieved 
his  struggling  spirit  somewhat  by  telling  me  of 
the  last  moments  with  Mrs.  Pitkin  and  the  very 
last  sight  he  had  of  her  and  the  little  boy's  sweet, 
serious  face  which  followed  and  comforted  him 
to  his  last  moments.  He  spoke  of  his  standing 
on  the  tender  watching  the  receding  lights  of  the 
steamer,  at  last  more  clear  in  mind  than  in  sight, 
and  then  loath  to  give  up  or  take  his  eyes  off  the 
most  powerful  imaginary  spot  that  it  is  the  ex- 
perience of  the  human  mind  to  know  or  see,  he 
was  standing  with  arms  folded  and  fixed  moist- 
ened eyes  looking,  looking,  when  some  one  at 
his  side  broke  the  spell  by  saying,  *  Pretty  hard, 
old  man,  I  know  how  you  feel;  I've  just  passed 
through  the  same  experience  within  a  week!' 
and  they  fell  to  conversation  about  things  in  gen- 
eral. He  hurried  up  from  Shanghai  and  he  was 
with  us  only  over  night,  leaving  in  the  early 
morning.  I  had  one  or  possibly  two  short  notes 
from  him  after  he  reached  Paotingfu  and  we  were 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    265 

soon  cut  off  entirely.  There  is  one  other  thing 
which  I  would  like  to  mention  in  connection 
with  Tracy  and  that  is  his  really  wonderful  ability 
in  music.  The  time  when  1  especially  enjoyed 
him  was  when  he  was  improvising.  He  was  fine 
in  his  interpretation  of  his  choice  scores,  but  1  al- 
ways felt  that  he  was  pouring  out  his  grand  soul 
for  music  in  those  sudden  inspirations.  I  liked 
him  best  at  the  organ,  and  we  often  remarked 
what  a  treat  it  would  be  to  hear  him  at  a  big 
organ." 

Even  if  Horace  had  foreseen  that  he  was  going 
back  to  Paotingfu  to  his  death,  he  would  not  have 
hesitated  an  instant  if  he  had  perceived  it  to  be 
his  duty.  "I  have  always  felt  a  trust  and  con- 
fidence in  his  goodness  and  uprightness,"  says 
one  of  his  cousins  who  had  known  him  all  his 
life.  "He  was  single-eyed,  and  I  always  felt 
sure  that  when  he  saw  a  duty,  nothing  could 
swerve  him  from  his  purpose.  He  never  dis- 
appointed me."  As  to  the  political  situation 
about  Paotingfu,  when  he  returned  to  the  station, 
he  wrote  at  length  in  his  last  letter  to  the  Pilgrim 
Church,  May  9,  1900,  already  quoted: 

"What  of  our  situation  here!  You  might 
describe  it  as  a  'deadlock.'  The  Boxers  (the 
society  of  which  I  wrote  in  my  last)  have  been 
gradually  creeping  northward  from  Shan-tung, 
the  province  south  of  us.  While  there,  since  the 
murder  of  Mr.  Brooks,  their  doings  have  been 
more  and  more  under  the  surface,  until  now  there 
is  an  'unquiet  quiet'  in  those  parts — here  in 
Chih-li,  the  movement  has  been  growing  bolder. 
Boxers  openly  practice  their  incantations,  dancing 


266  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

and  sword  practice,  even  as  far  north  as  Tungcho 
and  even  in  the  very  city  of  Peking.  Some 
weeks  ago,  the  four  nations  demanded  from 
China  the  complete  suppression  of  the  move- 
ment. Edicts  were  issued — but  who  ever  saw 
them  ? — except  in  the  large  cities!  and  even  then, 
here  in  Paotingfu  one  recently  appeared  a  month 
old.  The  nations  backed  up  the  demand  with  a 
few  warships,  but  being  assured  that  everything 
was  quiet,  they  withdrew  them.  Quiet  .^  Yes, 
very!  On  my  return  from  Shanghai,  I  found  oui 
premises  guarded  at  night  by  a  small  handful  of 
soldiers  sent  by  the  magistrate  in  the  city.  Be- 
cause everything  was  quiet!  Then  a  few  days 
afterwards,  the  Boxers  assembled  in  large  force 
fifteen  miles  south  of  us  and  attacked  a  Roman 
Catholic  village.  The  Riunan^Catholics  mounted 
the  Jionsetops  and  managed  to  shoot  thirty 
Boxers,  with  a  loss  of  one  on  their  side.  Thus 
was  frustrated  the  plan  to  sack  that  Roman 
Catholic  place,  sack  another  and  then  come  to 
Paotingfu  to  pillage  the  cathedral,  hnmediately, 
soldiers  were  sent  to  'talk  peace' — but  week  on 
week  has  gone  by  and  they  won't  talk.  The 
soldiers  sympathize  with  the  Boxers,  for  they  all 
have  a  grudge  against  the  Catholics.  The  Chinese 
like  nothing  better  than  a  lawsuit — and  when  a 
Roman  Catholic  gets  into  one,  the  Church  backs 
him  up,  threatens  the  judge  and  wins  the  case  for 
him.  You  can  see  how  the  Church  will  grow 
under  such  circumstances  and  also  what  a  burden 
of  grudges  will  rest  upon  it.  In  addition,  the 
Roman  Catholics  a  while  ago  obtained  by  an  un- 
fair scheme,  property  in  the  city  here  for  a 
cathedral.  They  had  been  refused  for  years  a 
foothold  in  the  city.  To  force  the  officials  to 
give  it  to  them,  laid  up  a  mint  of  hate  against 
them.  This  is  one  side  of  the  question.  But 
judging   from   Shan-tung  and  from   the  Boxer 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    267 

threats  everywhere  in  posters,  etc.,  we  must 
believe  thatjiatred  of  Protestants  lies  down  below 
somewhere  in  the  universal  hate  of  foreigners. 
That  Boxer  versus  Roman  Catholic  has  just  here 
come  to  the  fore  is  a  local  complication.  Let 
things  get  started  once  and  Protestants  will  be 
lumped  in  with  the  Roman  Catholics.  In  Shan- 
tung, they  started  with  robbing  Christians,  but 
ended  with  plundering  any  rich  heathen  they 
could  get  hold  of.  How  much  more  likely  is  it 
that  we  shall  be  pulled  in  after  the  Roman 
Catholics!  To  the  west  of  us,  things  are  quieter, 
so  one  helper  works  there.  For  the  rest  of  the 
stations,  and  for  any  country  work  close  at  hand, 
the  time  is  not  yet.  The  wildest  rumors  are  all 
afloat — no  one  would  listen  to  the  doctrine — 
attendance  at  our  chapel  has  fallen  off — little  day 
schools  shut  up — and  foreigners  cannot  think  of 
doing  country  work.  Of  course,  the  unprece- 
dented drought  adds  fuel  to  the  hate  against 
those  who  bring  this  curse  on  China.  Just  now 
we  are  haying  a  heavy  shower.  That  may  relieve 
affairs.  But  things  are  at  a  deadlock.  Soldiers 
won't  really  move  against  the  Boxers — in  fact, 
they  can't — until  they  see  the  Boxers  really  fight- 
ing; for  one  of  the  Empress  Dowager's  edicts 
calls  the  Boxers  only  patriotic  sons,  drilling  for 
self-defense  and  demands  that  they  be  protected. 
This  is  one  of  the  sample  edicts  that  laugh  at  the 
Great  Nations'  representatives  in  Peking.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Boxers  are  not  sure  whether  the 
soldiers  would  really  prevent  them  from  fighting, 
so  the  excitement  keeps  up.  God  only  knows 
the  end!  Here  is  a  sample  of  the  placards  that 
are  scattered  from  end  to  end  of  this  province  of 
Chih-li.  Imagine  how  they  appeal  to  an  ignorant 
and  superstitious  people! —  (Translation.) 
"The  Gods  assist  the  Boxers. 
The  Patriotic  Harmonious  Corps! 


268  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

It  is  because  the  Foreign  Devils  disturb  the 
*  Middle  Kingdom,'  urging  the  people  to  join 
their  religion, 

To  turn  their  backs  on  Heaven, 

Venerate  not  the  Gods  and  forget  the  ances- 
tors. 

Men  violate  the  human  obligations. 

Women  commit  adultery. 

Foreign  Devils  are  not  produced  by  mankind. 

If  you  do  not  believe, 

Look  at  them  carefully. 

The  eyes  of  all  the  Foreign  Devils  are  blueish. 

No  rain  falls, 

The  earth  is  getting  dry. 

This  is  because  the  Churches  stop  Heaven. 

The  Gods  are  angry. 

The  Genii  are  vexed. 

Both  come  down  from  the  mountains  to  de- 
liver the  doctrine. 

Thjsisno  hearsay. 

The  practice  of  boxing  will  not  be  in  vain. 

Reciting  incantations  and  pronouncing  magic 
words, 

Burn  up  yellow  written  prayers, 

Light  incense  sticks, 

To  invite  the  Gods  and  Genii  of  all  the  grot- 
toes. 

When  all  the  military  accomplishments  or 
tactics  are  fully  learned, 

It  will  not  be  difficult  to  exterminate  the  Foreign 
Devils  then. 

Push  aside  the  railroad  tracks. 

Pull  out  the  telegraph  poles. 

Immediately  after  this  destroy  the  steamers. 

The  great  France 

Will  grow  cold  in  her  heart  and  downhearted, 

The  English  and  Russians  will  certainly  dis- 
perse. 

Let  the  various  Foreign  Devils  all  be  killed. 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    269 

May  the  whole   elegant   Empire  of  the  Great 

Ching 
Dynasty  be  ever  prosperous! " 
"The  poem  is  in  three  line  couplets  with  a 
swing  like  this  (first  three  lines), 

"  *  Shen'chu  ch«uan  (boxer) 
Yi  Ho  Tuan 
Chih  Yin  Kuei  tzu  Nao  Chung  yuen.' 

You  can  see  how  it  would  catch  and  stick  in  the 
heads  of  old  and  young. 

**  A  capital  incident,  connected  with  the  noble 
guard  that  comes  and  sleeps  here,  supposed  to  be 
a  protection  (it  may  be  until  there  is  trouble)! 
It  illustrates  the  general  equipment  of  the  Chinese 
military  force.  They  brought  their  guns  with  them 
and  we  were  rejoicing  in  the  display.  But  one 
evening  the  elder  pastor  suggested  to  Ewingthat 
it  might  be  well  for  them  to  fire  a  salute  at  the 
closing  of  our  gate — 9  p.  m.  The  Chinese,  then, 
would  know  that  we  were  guarded.  Ewing 
asked  the  pastor  to  speak  to  them,  which  he  did. 
*  But  w^Jhave-JiQ.  powder,'  wailed  they.  Sure 
enough!  So  Ewing  had  to  write  to  the  military 
official  in  the  city  to  request  him  to  furnish  pow- 
der with  the  guns.  A  day  or  two  afterwards, 
we  had  the  first  of  the  salutes  and  since  then, 
come  nine  o'clock,  the  house  fairly  rocks  with 
the  racket  down  there  in  the  yard.  I  write  this, 
not  to  say  that  we  are  in  danger  for  I  don't  be- 
lieve we  are — but  only  to  ask  you  to  pray  that  the 
door  of  escape  may  soon  be  opened  and  our 
work  go  on  in  quietness  once  more.  Perhaps 
this  is  the  best  way  out  of  the  dilemma.  Were 
the  Powers  to  become  impatient  and  land  troops, 
we  couldn't  possibly  stay  here  and  everything 
would  be  wrecked.  Come  rain  and  good  crops 
— and    perhaps    things    will    subside.     .     .     . 


270  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Thank  you  all,  dear  friends,  for  your  many  re- 
membrances— and  above  all  for  your  constant 
prayers  for  us.  His  Kingdom  come — on  earth  as 
it  is  in  Heaven!  Many,  many  times  we  have 
thought  of  you  all  as  you  drew  near  to  and 
reached  the  glorious  communion  season  of  Easter 
Day.  We  believe  very  many  gainid  the  fellow- 
ship of  our  church  on  that  day.  May  the  Spirit's 
gifts  of  the  Lenten  season  paint  more  and  more 
deeply  in  our  hearts  the  Life  Portrait  of  the  Son 
of  God  I 

**  Your  friend  and  fellow-worker, 
**  The  Pilgrim  abroad, 

"  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin." 

The  rapid  development  of  affairs  in  Paotingfu 
during  May  can  be  best  set  forth  in  quotations 
from  Horace's  letters  to  Mrs.  Pitkin:  — 

"  May  15th. — I  noticed  by  the  paper  that  Tsun 
Hua  has  cavalry  force.  There  is  said  to  have 
been  a  fight  at  Ting  Hsing  between  the  Roman 
Catholics  and  Boxers  all  day  long,  Saturday. 
Nothing  more,  so  I  think  it  did  not  amount  to 
much.  Yesterday,  a  gang  came  from  a  near  by 
village  and  brought  in  a  man  accused  of  boy 
stealing.  They  were  going  to  bury  him  alive, 
but  his  friends  here  in  the  south  suburb  rescued 
him. 

"May  i6th. — ^^Our  soldiers  have  been  changed 
because  the  cavairy"°or^tiich  they  are  a  part, 
were~orHei^ed"  away.  So  foot  soldiers  have  come 
instead.  They  are  all  Paotingfu  men  and  will 
stay  in  the  compound  here  night  and  day,  going 
in"§^quads  to  their  homes  for  their  meals.  That 
makes  it  more  bothersome  for  us  but  safer.  The 
fight  at  the  village  a  few  miles  from  the  village 
of  Ting  Hsing  was  told  me  to-day. 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    271 

"  It  seems  that  in  the  moonlight  of  Saturday 
night,  the  Boxers  came  down  on  the  village,  sur- 
rounded the  houses  of  the  Roman  Catholics  as 
they  were  pointed  out  to  them  and  then  robbed 
them,  allowing  no  one  to  escape.  Finally,  they 
fired  the  houses  and  as  the  people  rushed  out 
from  the  flames,  they  were  killed  and  thrown 
back  into  the  fire.  Only  one  man  escaped  and 
they  pursued  him.  He  jumped  into  a  well  and 
so  they  fired  their  guns  into  the  well  and  threw 
down  bricks,  until  thinking  him  dead,  they  left. 
He  managed  to  get  out  and  started  for  Paotingfu, 
told  the  Roman  Catholics  and  they  waited  all  day 
for  other  survivors  to  come.  As  none  came,  on 
Monday,  they  saw  the  provincial  judge  and  he 
sent  soldiers,  but  they  could  find  nothing.  The 
Roman  Catholics  were  absolutely  wiped  out, 
thirty  or  more.  Everywhere  we  hear  they  are 
not  interfering  with  or  molesting  the  Protestants. 
It  is  paying  off  old  scores  against  the  Catholics. 
The  Boxers  have  it  arranged  that  a  part  of  the 
family  till  the  ground,  while  the  others  drill  and 
plunder.  The  Roman  Catholics  being  few  in 
number  stay  on  guard,  in  consequence  their  fields 
are  untilled  and  idle  now.  It  will  mean  great 
distress  for  them  later.  .  .  .  Miss  Gould  has 
made  her  plans  to  go  to  the  annual  meeting  at 
Tungcho.  If  this  trouble  keeps  on.  I  may  not 
go  until  next  Thursday  or  Friday,  when  one  of 
the  native  pastors  will  be  back.  I  do  not  like  to 
leave  the  compound  without  a  man  here.  In  the 
present  state  of  affairs,  I  think  I  shall  favor  giving 
up  the  July  meeting  here. 

**May  i8th. — The  Boxers  were  having  a  fine 
time  in  the  city  drilling  to-day.  The  official  or- 
dered them  to  stop  but  they  wouldn't.  As  most 
of  them  were  Manchus,  he  called  the  leaders  of 
the  Boxers  together  and  told  them  he  would  dock 
the  -pay  of  every  Manchu  who  drilled  against  his 


272  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

orders.  We  shall  see  by  to-morrow  what  effect 
that  threat  will  have  upon  them.  Out  at  Wan 
Hsin  last  week,  they  sent  word  to  Mr.  Simcox 
not  to  come  there  but  he  went.  Just  after  he  ar- 
rived there,  a  lot  of  roughs,  not  necessarily  Box- 
ers, broke  into  the  room  and  grabbed  an  inquirer 
and  dragged  him  out  and  beat  him  into  insensi- 
bility. Mr.  Simcox  got  up  on  the  roof  with  his 
assistant  and  waited  for  the  official.  When  that 
worthy  came,  Simcox  pointed  out  to  him  one 
rough  who  had  come  at  him  with  a  club  and  had 
him  arrested.  The  official  talked  peace  and  went 
off.  When  Mr.  Simcox  had  got  the  inquirer  into 
the  room  again,  the  rioting  broke  out  afresh  and 
at  2  p.  M.  he  sent  the  inquirer  home,  afraid  that 
he  would  die.  Mr.  Simcox  and  the  helper  then 
started  for  Paotingfu.  Evidently^  they  vented 
their  spite  upon  the  natives,  they  didn't  have 
courage  against  the  foreigner.  Everything  is 
quiet  here  down  our  way. 

**May  24th. — News  came  yesterday  of  a  Chi- 
nese military  official,  with  thirty  men,  all  on 
horses,  being  surrounded  by  Boxers,  north  of 
Ting  Hsing.  His  horse  was  killed,  his  men  fled 
and  he  was  murdered.  That  ought  to  stir  up  the 
Dowager  Empress  against  these  'children'  of 
hers.  Also,  in  a  London  Mission  station,  south- 
east of  Cho  Chou,  a  teacher  and  a  gatekeeper 
have  been  killed  by  the  Boxers.  Finally,  a  letter 
came  last  evening  from  Chi  Chi,  speaking  of  the 
terror  that  exists  down  there.  One  church  mem- 
ber, now  in  hiding,  is  being  hunted.  A  note 
from  Dr.  Goodrich,  to-night,  says  that  the  French 
Admiral  is  now  in  Peking,  and  the  American 
Admiral  is  expected  there  soon.  Also,  all  the 
foreign  ministers,  for  the  first  time  in  many 
years,  have  met  together  to  consider  the  present 
condition  of  affairs.  Some  750  soldiers  from 
K'ai  P'ing  near  T'ang  Shan,  came  in  on  a  special 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    273 

train,  night  before  last.  Others  came  before  from 
Peking.  I  hear  the  train  whistle  this  evening  that 
seems  to  bespeak  more  are  coming.  These  men 
wear  straw  hats  and  foreign  boots.  I  think  they 
are  from  Yuan  Shih  K'ai's  troops.  It  is  said  they 
make  a  very  fine  appearance.     .     .     . 

"  There  is  a  three  days'  fair  in  progress  at  the 
temple  towards  the  east,  which  we  used  to  pass 
in  our  walks.  So  the  soldier  guards  sit  at  our 
gates  now,  and  according  to  custom,  hang  their 
red  garments  on  each  gate  post.  Every  one  duly 
takes  warning.  It  is  a  good  thing  that  the  official 
seems  so  friendly.  There  are  five  soldiers  at  the 
China  Inland  Mission  compound,  three  at  the 
hospital  compound  and  nine  here  in  our  com- 
pound. There  was  good  attendance  at  prayer- 
meeting  this  afternoon.  Miss  Morrill  is  working 
hard  to  keep  them  up  in  attendance.  Mr.  Sim- 
cox  of  the  Presbyterian  Mission  will  preach  on 
Sunday.     .     .     . 

"  May  25th. — Pastor  Meng  came  in  to  say  that 
one  of  the  four  officials  appointed  to  watch  the 
city  gates  was  here  to  see  me.  So  I  had  tea  made 
and  he  soon  came  in.  We  talked  a  little,  I 
showed  him  the  piano  and  then  he  left.  He  said 
that  there  are  about  three  thousand  soldiers  here. 
The  fair  over  at  the  temple  has  been  going  on  all 
day  and  now  they  are  fairly  making  Rome  howl. 
The  soldiers  are  very  respectable  they  say,  not 
like  the  Kan  Su  at  the  fair.  There  was  a  small 
fight  over  at  the  fair.  The  soldiers  quietly  inter- 
fered and  marched  the  gang  to  the  official,  to 
whom  they  knocked  their  heads  in  great  shape. 
There  was  no  noise  or  fuss  about  it.  It  is  said 
that  the  soldiers  pay  for  things  they  get  at  the 
shops.  Our  guards  are  cooking  their  own  food 
here  now,  as  their  homes  are  too  far  away  to  go 
back  and  forth  to  their  meals.  We  think  it  an- 
swers just  as  well.     This  evening,  the  weather 


274  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

was  so  hot  that  we  held  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  meeting 
in  the  chapel.  Miss  Gould  gave  a  talk  on  Mi- 
cronesia. All  listened  attentively.  The  wind  is 
coming  up  a  bit  but  the  thermometer  here  in  the 
room  stands  at  ninety  degrees.  I  guess  we  shall 
put  off  Children's  Day  to  the  last  Sunday  before 
the  school  closes,  and  have  a  union  meeting  of  the 
children  and  a  farewell  service  combined.  .  .  . 
"  May  27th. — Had  a  big  rain  this  morning  and 
teacher  Li  came  in  late.  At  chapel  service  this 
morning,  the  girls  did  not  come  on  account  of  the 
rain  and  Ch'ing  T'ang,  who  was  to  act  as  leader 
did  not  come,  so  1  led  instead.  Weather  cold 
and  really  damp  after  the  rain.  Mr.  Simcox 
preached  to-day  to  a  very  good  audience.  He 
gave  a  fine  sermon  on  *  Persecution  used  of  God.' 
It  was  just  the  thing  for  this  time.  This  evening, 
teacher  Li  came  in  and  said  that  the  rails  of  the 
railway  had  been  torn  up  on  the  other  side  of 
Kao  Pei  Tien,  just  after  the  train  from  Feng  T'ai 
had  passed,  but  the  train  to  Feng  T'ai  had  been 
stopped  in  time  and  it  had  returned  here.  I  hope 
they  will  get  things  fixed  up  before  next  Tuesday 
so  that  Miss  Gould  can  go  to  Tungcho  for  the 
annual  meeting.  I  have  decided  not  to  go.  I  do 
not  think  I  should  be  justified  in  absenting  myself 
from  here  just  now.  .  .  .  The  official  who 
saw  me  on  Friday  came  here  Saturday  to  join  the 
soldiers  in  the  compound.  His  business  now  is 
to  watch  over  us  in  the  compound.  He  can  re- 
port affairs  direct  to  the  Hsieh  T'ai,  the  military 
governor  in  the  city,  and  will  probably  keep  the 
men  under  him  in  better  trim  while  they  remain 
on  guard." 

The  last  letter  from  Horace  was  to  his  Ameri- 
can associates  in  Peking.  It  was  written  on 
the  morning   of  June  2d,    1900,    and  was  car- 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    275 

ried  by  a  Chinese  runner,  who  got  through  the 
Boxer  lines. 

*'  Saturday  evening. — Meng  I  came  in  this  noon 
and  told  us  something  of  outside  affairs.  One 
thousand  foreign  soldiers  in  Peking,  etc.  Also 
that  Meng  II  with  family  was  expecting  to  come 
up  by  boat.  As  no  boats,  Chinese  or  foreign, 
can  pass  up  the  river  without  being  searched, 
Meng  would  stand  no  chance  at  all.  So  we  have 
wired  to  Tientsin  to  intercept  him.  Also  have 
sent  two  men  to  try  to  find  him  and  turn  him 
back.  The  Presbyterians  have  sent  a  man  to  try 
to  catch  Lowrie,  who  left  Tientsin,  or  expected 
to  leave,  yesterday.  The  fate  of  the  French  party 
seems  uncertain.  They  left  in  spite  of  the  pro- 
test of  the  officials — thirty  in  all,  eleven  boats 
with  three  soldiers  to  a  boat.  About  160  li  from 
here,  they  were  incautious  and  were  seen  by 
Boxers  on  the  way  to  sack  a  Catholic  church. 
Surrounded  in  shallow  water,  they  used  all  of 
their  ammunition — killed  a  great  many,  were 
finally  overpowered  and  all  massacred.  As  to 
whether  the  women  killed  themselves  is  not  cer- 
tain. Some  boats,  three  interpreters  and  soldiers 
(some  wounded)  have  come  back. 

"  It  may  be  the  beginning  of  the  end.  God 
rules  and  somehow  His  Kingdom  must  be 
brought  about  in  China. 

"  Of  course,  the  soldiers  here  are  no  use.  Some 
days  ago,  our  friend,  in  the  city,  Wu  Ta  Jen, 
suggested  all  going,  but  even  if  we  ever  should 
come  to  that  state,  the  way  is  blocked  by  river 
and  train.  Trains  still  run  to  Kao  Pei  Tien,  160 
li,  free  passage,  for  no  foreigners  run  them. 
Then  no  more  road  until  Feng  T'ai  is  reached. 
We  have  the  old  wire  to  Tientsin,  which  when 
the  railway  put  up  its  wire,  was  turned  to  official 


276  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

use  only.  Now  it  is  open  once  more.  The  rail- 
way to  the  south  is  broken — sixty  li  and  ninety 
li  south  of  here — two  stations  and  bridges  burned 
and  wires  cut.  Also  wire  into  Shan-si  is  cut. 
Letter  just  in  from  Davis  at  Jen  T'sun,  says  all  is 
quiet  there.  We  did  have  two  or  three  thousand 
soldiers  here  (imperial  troops)  but  a  lot  have  gone 
north  to  Ting  Hsing,  so  not  many  left.  Spme 
are  from  K'ai  P'ing  (T'ong  Shang),  wear  straw 
hats.  Boxers  hate  them  and  say  they  are  hired 
by  foreigners.  So  now  north  of  us  160  li  is  one 
band  of  plunderers;  east  160  li  on  the  river  an- 
other; south  fifty  li  another,  but  more  bent  on 
local  ravage;  southwest  fifty  li,  another,  pillaging 
railway.  As  for  Paotingfu,  Boxers  drill  in  tem- 
ples in  the  city  and  officials  are  powerless.  What 
our  chances  are,  it  is  hard  to  tell.  All  along,  the 
officials  have  sent  us  a  small  guard,  but  they,  al- 
though nice  fellows  enough,  will  be  of  no  use. 
Whether  the  local  Boxers  will  have  tan  tzu 
(courage)  enough  to  attack,  don't  know.  But  a 
firebrand  from  north,  east,  south  or  west  will  be 
sufficient,  that's  sure.  So  we  send  this  note  to 
you.  What  Minister  Conger  will  do,  we  have 
no  idea.  Will  Peking  and  Tientsin  demand  so 
many  foreign  troops,  that  nothing  will  be  done 
for  small  Tungcho  or  Paotingfu  ?  One  town, 
•thirty,  li  south  of  us,  where  the  Catholics  have  re- 
canted in  a  EoHy—firecrackers  and  great  rejoic- 
ing, but  Protestant  natives  are  not  touched. 
Everybody  has  been  saying  that  *  Jesus  Church ' 
is  all  right.  Only  want  Catholics.  All  agreed 
that  if  the  Catholics  should  be  massacred,  no 
telling  whether  the  above  pretensions  would  hold 
water.  Fear  they  would  not.  Whether  this 
trouble  on  the  river  will  be  an  incentive  to  local 
talent,  don't  know.  If  it  was  premeditated,  it 
may;  if  an  accidental  meeting,  nothing  may 
come  of  it  save  the  awful  pressure  brought  to 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    277 

bear  at  Peking  when  the  world  nations  have 
heard  of  it.  In  the  meantime,  we  may  not  be 
left  to  see  the  end.  It's  a  grand  cause  to  die  in. 
Jesus  shall  reign,  but  we  do  hope  a  long  life  may 
be  for  us  in  this  work. 

"We  write  this  to  give  you  the  facts,  inasmuch 
as  you  may  have  no  authentic  information.  The 
telegram  Ewing  sent  us  from  Peking  or  Tungcho 
never  arrived.  Meng  I  told  us  of  the  sending. 
What  an  escape  for  Deacon  Liu  of  Cho  Choul 
God's  preservation. 

**  Our  affectionate  greeting  to  you  all, 
"In  His  service, 

*'  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin. 


"Advice  from  north  suburb  is  that  they  have 
difficulty  in  keeping  servants.  Yao  Yen  (rumors) 
increasing  in  the  city,  said  now,  to-morrow  or 
next  day,  the  Roman  Catholic  church  in  Nan 
Chuang,  thirty  li  south,  will  be  burned;  then  the 
cathedral  here  and  then  we  come  last — Protestants 
and  Catholics  alike.  Dry  as  powder — oppressive 
dust-storm.  God  give  us  rain!  That  should 
quiet  things  for  the  moment.  Will  you  not  press 
Minister  Conger  about  things  }  We  need  a  guard 
of  300  or  500  soldiers  here  at  once.  I  had  fainted 
unless  I  had  believed  to  see  the  goodness  of  the 
Lord  in  the  land  of  the  living.  I  know  I  shall  up 
there.  Down  here,  may  He  help  me  also  to  see 
it.  The  moon  gets  brighter  every  night — and — 
what — then!  God  leads — thank  God,  He  does! 
We  can't  go  out  to  fight — we  have  no  soldiers  to 
trust — a  guard  of  ten  or  so,  who  will  vanish  as 
the  mist — we  must  sit  still,  do  our  work,  and 
take  quietly  whatever  is  sent  us.  And  it  will  be 
but  a  short  time  before  we  can  know  definitely 
v/hether  we  can  serve  Him  better  above  or  not. 
1  hear  Miss  Newton  has  had  trouble.     Perhaps 


278  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

you  are  all  in  great  distress.     But  make  one  more 
appeal  to  Conger  for  Paotingfu. 

"Asking  for  faitii  and  strength, 

"  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin. 

"  P.  S.  Boxers  who  have  been  breaking  up  the 
railway  have  no  arms  to  amount  to  anything. 
The  Boxers  on  the  river  used  'duck  guns.'  Sol- 
diers can  come  to  Kao  Pei  Tien  or  Ting  Hsing  and 
catch  a  train  there,  140  ii  from  here.  Two  high- 
est officials  here,  it  is  said,  are  on  opposite  sides 
of  the  fence.  One  to  attack  Boxers,  the  other 
not  until  definite  orders  from  Peking  are  received 
to  protect  foreigners  at  any  cost — otherwise  they 
will  be  held  responsible.  We  cannot  be  sure  of 
a  single  day's  life.  Work  and  pray  for  us.  Pray 
for  rain. 

"  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin." 

The  attack  on  the  Belgian  engineering  party 
(called  French  in  the  letter)  which  tried  to  escape 
by  river  showed  that  all  hope  was  cut  off  in  that 
direction.  The  possibility  of  flight  overland  to 
the  south  was  too  doubtful  to  be  considered  for 
a  moment.  The  experiences  of  many  interior 
missionaries  showed  afterwards  that  it  might 
have  succeeded,  but  it  would  have  been  deemed 
madness  at  the  time.  The  only  hope  lay  in 
relief  from  Peking,  where  the  legations  were  not 
yet  beseiged.  On  June  6th  Pitkin  sent  a  telegram 
to  Minister  Conger,  in  Dr.  Taylor's  name,  as  fol- 
lows: **  Viceroy's  orders  received.  Officials  de- 
clare local  troops  insufficient  guard  compound. 
Nieh's  troops  not  arrived.  Situation  still  dan- 
gerous."    The    original    of   this   telegram    was 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    279 

recovered  from  the  telegraph  office  in  Paotingfu 
when  the  military  expedition  reached  the  city  in 
October.  How  the  telegram  came  to  be  sent 
and  what  it  meant,  the  Rev.  J.  Walter  Lowrie, 
of  the  Presbyterian  Mission,  explains: 

"  One  can  almost  with  certainty  supply  the 
circumstances  under  which  it  was  written.  The 
6th  of  June  was  the  loth  of  the  fifth  moon 
(Chinese  calendar)  and  Dr.  Taylor's  dispensary 
day  in  the  city.  The  murderous  attack  upon  the 
Belgian  engineers  five  days  before  had  alarmed  all 
the  friends  of  the  Paotingfu  workers,  and  Mr. 
Conger  had  wired  to  learn  of  their  welfare.  The 
telegram  reached  Dr.  Taylor  while  in  his  dis- 
pensary, and  Mr.  Pitkin  was  there  making  one  of 
those  cheering  calls  which  he  continued  to  make 
even  more  frequently  than  ever  after  his  house 
had  become  lonely.  They  talked  over  the  word- 
ing of  a  reply,  and  Mr.  Pitkin,  probably  on  his 
wheel,  but  possibly  walking,  bore  the  telegram 
to  the  office  and  sent  it  in  Dr.  Taylor's  name, 
thence  returning  to  his  home.  The  viceroy  was 
secretly,  but  bitterly  opposed  to  foreigners — a 
fact  not  known  then  to  even  the  consuls  in 
Tientsin.  The  reference  to  the  officials  seems  to 
imply  that  they  had  called  on  or  been  called  uporv 
by  the  officials  that  day.  General  Nieh  was 
known  to  be  intelligent  and  pro-foreign.  Some 
troops  of  his  were  sent  for  a  time,  but  withdrawn 
again  after  the  siege  of  the  foreign  community  in 
Tientsin  began,  in  order  to  aid  in  the  capture 
there.  I  was  in  Tientsin,  and  between  the  second 
and  seventeenth  of  June  (when  the  first  shell 
boomed  over  Tzu  chu  lin)  I  made  every  effort  to 
induce  a  foreign  relief  force  to  march  to  Paotingfu. 
But  the  reply  always  came  that  the  force  (Ameri- 
can) was  too  small,  and  moreover,  that  it  was 


28o  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

sent  to  protect  the  legation  and  could  not  be 
diverted  to  any  other  object.  It  is  a  question 
whether  150  men  could  have  reached  Paotingfu 
safely,  for  the  military,  which  up  to  that  time 
had  been  neutral,  might  have  become  alarmed  at 
the  entrance  of  a  foreign  force  into  the  interior 
and  might  have  attacked  them.  The  Boxers 
alone  could,  I  think,  have  been  held  off  by  such  a 
force." 

The  original  copy  of  the  last  message  which 
reached  the  outside  world  from  Paotingfu  was 
also  recovered  from  the  telegraph  office.  It  was 
sent  by  Pitkin  on  June  nth,  in  Latin  to  Mr. 
Lowrie,  then  at  Tientsin: 

* '  Quaestor  Province  nonvult  protegere.  Ceteri 
volunt.  Solum  spes  yoreciv  statim  wiper  at  Nieh 
mittere  milites.  Sex  mille  pugiles  ad  orientem  liu 
ohsidentes  Romanos.  Hodie  volunt  pugnare.  Si 
vincant  pervement.    Immanuel. 

"Pitkin." 

Which  translated  was: 

"  The  provincial  treasurer  not  willing  to  pro- 
tect. Others  are.  Our  only  hope  is  that  the 
viceroy  orders  General  Nieh  to  send  soldiers. 
Six  thousand  Boxers  are  at  the  village  of  Tung 
Lu  beseiging  the  Roman  Catholics.  They  wish 
to  fight  to-day.  If  they  conquer  they  will  come 
over  (against  us).     Immanuel. 

"Pitkin." 

Of  the  receipt  of  this  message,  Mr.  Lowrie 
writes: 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    281 

"The  last  telegram  sent  me  in  Latin,  five  days 
later,  reveals  the  danger  they  apprehended.  They 
had  learned  that  the  Fan  Tai  was  bent  on  their 
destruction.  Nieh's  soldiers  had  not  arrived  and 
their  safety  hung  upon  the  issue  of  the  Boxer 
attack  upon  the  village  of  Tung  Lu.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  Tung  Lii  successfully  resisted  thirty  attacks 
of  Boxers  and  Imperial  troops.  And  at  last  those 
who  wrought  their  wicked  will  on  our  loved  ones 
were  from  the  city  of  Paotingfu  itself.  How 
beautifully  the  word  Immanuel  shines  from  the 
background  of  carnage  and  hate.  He  was  their 
stay  through  that  month  of  deepening  danger, 
and  evidently  was  with  Mr.  Pitkin  on  the  night 
before  he  was  translated.  On  receiving  this  tele- 
gram, Mr.  Mills,  of  the  China  Inland  Mission,  and 
1  visited  our  respective  consuls  and  urged  them 
to  bring  every  pressure  to  bear  on  the  viceroy, 
which  I  believe  they  did,  but  six  days  after  this 
(Monday)  the  fight  was  on  and  foreign  Tientsin 
was  struggling  for  existence.  The  telegraph 
lines  were  broken  and  mended  several  times 
during  the  days  preceding  the  17th  of  June.  We 
could  neither  send  nor  receive  messages  every 
day.  In  one  of  my  last,  I  urged  Dr.  Taylor  to 
urge  all  to  flee  to  the  southwest  (Cheng  Ting  fu) 
region,  and  they  did  think  of  escaping  in  that 
direction,  but  it  seemed  too  precarious  a  venture. 
Then,  too,  it  was  practically  impossible  to  find 
any  conveyance.  All  carters  were  terrorized.  I 
do  not  know  that  there  has  yet  been  found  any 
writing  later  than  this  from  our  loved  ones.  It 
was  a  lying  telegram  from  the  viceroy  to  the 
throne,  claiming  a  great  victory  at  Tientsin,  that 
is  thought  to  have  inspired  the  edict  of  the  23d  of 
June,  which  resulted  in  the  murder  of  the  for- 
eigners in  North  China.  He  and  his  brother  and 
nephew  all  perished  within  three  months,  and 
the  family  is  said  to  be  extinct.     Some  of  the 


282  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

judgments  of  the  Lord  we  can  seem  to  under- 
stand; but  for  others  of  His  ways,  we  can  only 
say,  *It  is  the  Lord.  Though  He  slay  me,  yet 
will  I  trust  in  Him.'" 


What  followed  the  telegram  of  June  nth  has 
been  learned,  of  course,  only  from  Chinese  wit- 
nesses, but  Mr.  Lowrie,  one  of  the  ablest  and 
most  devoted  missionaries  in  China,  who  ac- 
companied, as  interpreter,  the  military  expedition 
when  it  came  to  Paotingfu,  sifted  all  the  testi- 
mony and  wrote  out  a  trustworthy  account  of 
the  last  days: 

"In  the  spring  of  1900  there  were  some 
thirty-two  Protestant  missionaries,  including  chil- 
dren, residing  in  Paotingfu,  distributed  in  three 
compounds.  Two  of  these,  the  American  Con- 
gregational and  the  China  Inland  Mission,  were 
south  of  the  city  and  distant  from  the  city  gate 
half  a  mile  or  more,  and  from  each  other  less  than 
a  quarter  of  a  mile.  The  third  was  located  north 
of  the  city  about  one  mile,  the  American  Presby- 
terian Mission.  The  Roman  Catholics  had  a  fine 
church  building,  valued  at  thirty  thousand  or 
more  taels,  besides  priests'  residences  and  school 
buildings  in  the  heart  of  the  city.  By  the  ist  of 
June,  for  one  cause  or  another,  many  of  these 
missionaries  were  absent  from  home,  some  in  the 
United  States  and  some  elsewhere  in  China, 
leaving  fourteen  adults  and  children  and  one 
visitor  from  Shanghai,  returning  from  a  mission- 
ary trip  to  Shansi,  Mr.  Wm.  Cooper,  making  a 
total  of  fifteen  persons,  eleven  adults,  five  of 
whom  were  women,  and  four  children.  In  the 
American  Presbyterian  Mission,  north  of  the  city, 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    283 

were  Dr.  Taylor,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Simcox  and  three 
children,  and  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Hodge,  hi  the 
American  Board  Mission  were  Mr.  Pitkin,  Miss 
Morrill  and  Miss  Gould.  In  the  China  Inland 
Mission  were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bagnall  and  their 
little  girl  Gladys,  and  Mr.  Cooper. 

**All  communication  by  rail  was  destroyed 
before  June  8th,  but  protection  was  promised 
them  by  the  authorities.  The  Boxers  too  often 
said  that  they  had  no  ill  will  to  the  Protestant 
missionaries. 

**  Still,  they  grew  more  violent  in  the  country 
round  about,  and  the  missionaries  telegraphed 
frequently  to  Tientsin  and  to  Peking  for  military 
protection.  This  the  viceroy,  Yu  Lu,  repeatedly 
promised,  and  some  soldiers  were  despatched  as 
a  guard,  but  were  again  withdrawn.  Mean- 
while, the  river  route  to  Tientsin  was  attempted 
by  the  fleeing  Belgian  engineers,  who  were 
attacked  midway  between  Paotingi'u  and  Tien- 
tsin, driven  from  their  boats  with  loss  of  life, 
compelled  to  make  a  desperate  march  to  Tientsin 
through  the  midst  of  their  foes.  They  were  well 
armed,  and  after  some  days  of  fighting,  hunger 
and  fatigue,  the  survivors  reached  Tientsin.  The 
scantily  armed  missionaries  could  not  venture  on 
this  route.  As  the  storm  became  more  threaten- 
ing, the  city  authorities  suggested  to  the  mis- 
sionaries to  come  within  the  walls  and  occupy  a 
rented  house  within  the  city.  But  the  mis- 
sionaries very  reasonably  (as  the  fate  of  the 
Tai  yuen-fu  missionaries  who  were  within  the 
walls  attests)  argued  that  if  they  abandoned  their 
houses  and  the  mob  should  destroy  them,  they 
would  be  inflamed  to  murder  the  missionaries 
themselves.  But  if  the  authorities  sent  a  suffi- 
cient force  of  soldiers,  they  could  protect  mis- 
sionaries and  property  without  difficulty.  The 
missionaries  were  advised  to  put  in  large  letters 


284  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

on  their  doorway  the  words  *  Protestant  Mission,' 
which  they  did.  The  natives  began  to  be  much 
alarmed,  and  after  June  24th  many  of  the  servants 
and  teachers  fled  from  the  premises,  but  some 
with  splendid  fidelity  remained  to  the  end  and 
perished  with  their  foreign  friends.  On  the  24th 
of  June  appeared  the  ferocious  edict,  fuming  with 
hate,  calling  for  the  extinction  of  foreigners  and 
demolition  of  their  property,  and  with  it  the 
Boxers  received  the  last  impulse  to  their  hellish 
purpose. 

"On  the  afternoon  of  Thursday  28th  of  June 
while  Pastor  Meng  of  the  Congregational  Mission 
was  packing  the  books  in  the  street  chapel  within 
the  city,  preparatory  to  removing  everything  and 
sealing  up  the  premises,'  he  was  suddenly  seized, 
bound  and  carried  off  to  the  temple  occupied  by 
the  Boxers.  Mr.  Pitkin  sent  his  card  to  the  police 
court  to  secure  his  release,  but  in  vain.  And 
after  a  night  of  suffering,  he  was  beheaded  and 
buried  behind  the  temple  in  a  ditch.  In  the 
month  of  December  his  body  was  reverently  re- 
moved from  this  burial  place  and  coffmed.  The 
hands,  still  bound  behind  the  back,  were  re- 
leased, and  the  head  laid  in  its  proper  place  by 
the  younger  brother  of  the  deceased,  and  by  the 
Christians  some  thirty  in  number  who  were 
present.  On  the  day  of  Pastor  Meng's  arrest, 
Dr.  Taylor  had  made  his  regular  visit  to  the  city 
d'spensary  on  the  north  street.  Some  native 
college  men,  frequent  patients  of  his,  came  in  a 
body  and  with  weeping  eyes  confessed  their  in- 
ability to  help  him.  They  themselves  narrowly 
escaped  death  later  on  at  the  hands  of  the  Boxers. 
Dr.  Taylor  shed  tears  with  them  for  a  moment, 
then  recovering  himself,  bade  them  good-bye, 
closed  the  dispensary  door  with  his  accustomed 
self-control  and  returned  with  peaceful  counte- 
nance to  sustain  the  hearts  of  the  younger  mis- 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    285 

sionaries  at  his  home.  He  never  betrayed  the 
slightest  fear  during  those  trying  days,  but  with 
amazing  cheerfulness  refreshed  and  diverted  the 
minds  of  the  two  ladies  and  strengthened  the 
courage  of  his  two  male  comrades.  They 
seemed  to  have  thought  of  fleeing  southward  by 
cart,  and  drew  all  their  silver  from  the  native 
bank  and  hired  carts  or  endeavored  to  hire  them 
with  that  intent.  Some  say  that  no  cart  could  be 
induced  to  risk  the  journey.  On  the  morning  of 
the  29th  of  June,  an  officer  came  to  Dr.  Taylor, 
asking  him  to  give  the  keys  of  his  city  dispensary 
so  that  the  medicines  and  furniture  might  be  re- 
moved to  a  safe  place  ere  the  Boxers  looted  it. 
These  he  gave  and  to  the  officer's  suggestion 
that  he  should  appeal  to  some  of  his  gentry 
friends  for  protection,  he  replied  with  a  sigh, 
*  My  gentry  friends  are  only  friends  in  the  dis- 
pensary. They  will  do  nothing  for  me  now. 
My  only  real  friend  is  President  Wu-ru-sun,  and 
16  can  with  difficulty  preserve  his  own  life.' 
^resident  Wu  had  fled  alone  and  in  disguise  from 
the  city  that  very  morning.  The  dispensary  fur- 
niture was  removed,  the  Chinese  attendants  flee- 
ing to  the  country  that  day,  but  they  returned  to 
the  mission  compound  the  following  day  and 
met  their  death  there.  One  escaped  southward 
with  a  little  boy,  the  son  of  a  relative,  who  had 
been  entrusted  to  his  care.  He  could  not  save 
two  boys,  and  after  a  mental  conflict,  he  con- 
cluded to  leave  his  own  son  with  friends,  but 
take  his  trust  southward  to  his  home,  where  he 
arrived  safely  in  due  time.  On  the  afternoon  of 
the  30th  of  June,  a  mob,  composed  of  about 
twenty  Boxers  and  a  disorderly  rabble,  bent  on 
pillage,  came  by  a  circuitous  route  from  the  city, 
to  the  American  Presbyterian  Mission  premises. 
They  piled  cornstalks  against  the  doors  of  the 
compound  and  soon  had  them  in  flames.     They 


286  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

then  looted  the  hospital  and  chapel  and  Mr.  Mil- 
ler's residence  and  those  of  Mrs.  Lowrie  and  Dr. 
Hodge,  setting  fire  to  each  before  the  contents 
were  entirely  removed.  The  natives  in  the  com- 
pound, two  faithful  doorkeepers,  some  servants, 
and  two  old  women  and  children  were  either 
killed  or  driven  to  leap  into  a  well,  while  the 
foreigners  with  a  rifle  and  a  shotgun  held  the 
crowd  at  bay  from  the  windows  of  the  house  of 
Mr.  Simcox,  where  they  had  fled  together.  The 
leading  Boxer  was  killed,  but  finally  the  crowd 
succeeded  in  firing  the  house  itself  and  all  the  in- 
mates perished  in  the  flames,  Mr.  Simcox  being 
seen  hand  in  hand  with  his  two  little  sons  walk- 
ing to  and  fro  as  the  flames  enveloped  them. 
Dr.  Taylor  had  remonstrated  with  the  crowd 
from  the  window,  pleading  the  deeds  of  kind- 
ness that  they  had  all  wrought  so  fully  for  the 
people,  but  it  was  unavailing  and  the  party 
passed  together  from  their  far-away  funeral  pyre 
up  into  the  reward  of  those  who  have  left  houses 
and  lands  for  His  sake  and  the  Gospel's.  Dr. 
Taylor's  faithful  attendant  had  received  travelling 
expenses  from  his  master  previously,  but  had  re- 
mained and  succeeded  in  outrunning  his  pur- 
suers, when  he  was  waylaid  by  a  dastardly 
wretch  who  held  him,  tooK  his  money  and  gave 
him  over  to  his  enemies,  who  despatched  him 
and  buried  him  still  moving  in  the  shallow  soil. 
Harrowing  as  is  the  thought  of  the  fate  of  the 
missionaries,  one  cannot  but  be  thankful  that 
they  were  spared  the  brutalities  of  that  devilish 
crowd.  The  report  of  this  foul  deed  flew  over 
the  city  like  wildfire  and  the  workers  south  of 
the  city  could  but  prepare  for  the  worst.  Mr. 
Pitkin  prayed  with  the  Chinese  teacher  of  the 
girls'  school,  then  wrote  a  letter  to  his  wife,  one 
to  the  soldiers,  who  he  rightly  believed  would 
eventually  come  to  avenge  the  deed  and  one  to 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    287 

his  missionary  brethren,  and  with  a  faithful  at- 
tendant, not  a  professing  Christian  but  a  Chris- 
tian in  heart,  buried  these  letters  in  two  places  in 
the  outhouses  behind  his  residence.  He  then  re- 
turned to  the  house,  prayed  with  Lao-man  the 
faithful  and  left  him  one  parting  word,  '  Lao- 
man,'  said  he,  '  tell  the  mother  of  little  Horace  to 
tell  Horace  that  his  father's  last  wish  was  that 
when  he  is  twenty-five  years  of  age,  he  should 
come  to  China  as  a  missionary.'  Lao-man  re- 
ported this  to  the  writer  on  our  first  meeting 
after  reaching  Paotingfu.  Lao-man  at  Mr.  Pit- 
kin's wish  then  leaped  over  the  wall  and  escaped 
through  the  night.  Next  morning,  early,  on  the 
ist  of  July  through  a  pouring  rain,  their  com- 
pound was  attacked  front  and  back,  and  Miss 
Morrill  and  Miss  Gould,  who  lived  in  the  rear, 
fled  forward  to  the  chapel,  a  large  building  ne^r 
the  house  occupied  by  Mr.  Pitkin.  He  bravely 
went  out  and  endeavored  to  intimidate  the  crowd 
with  firing  his  revolver,  but  they  burst  in  the 
gate  very  soon  and  as  seems  true,  aided  by  the 
Imperial  soldiery,  pursued  him  towards  the 
chapel,  whither  he  retired  with  Miss  Morrill  and 
Miss  Gould.  Through  the  windows  of  this 
building,  he  held  the  crowd  at  bay  until  ammu- 
nition was  exhausted,  then  they  leaped  through 
a  rear  window  of  the  church  into  the  school  yard 
and  took  refuge  in  a  small  room  there.  From 
this  room,  Mr.  Pitkin  and  the  two  ladies  were 
taken  and  there  he  suffered  death  by  the  sword, 
which  severed  his  head  from  his  body.  There  is 
a  slight  divergence  in  the  stories  as  to  just  where 
and  how  he  met  his  death;  another  narrator  say- 
ing that  he  was  wounded  at  the  head  of  the  stone 
steps  where  he  first  held  the  crowd  at  bay  and 
falling  there,  was  beheaded  on  the  spot,  but  the 
writer  inclines  to  the  former  statement.  He  had 
with  Christian  chivalry  and  loyalty  done  his  ut- 


288  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

most  for  the  ladies  committed  as  it  were  to  his 
care  and  for  the  church  of  which  he  was  the 
only  foreign  protector,  and  died  as  any  hero 
might  be  proud  to  die.  The  young  ladies  were 
rudely  seized  by  the  brutal  crowd.  Miss  Morrill 
by  the  hair,  which  was  loosened  and  flowing; 
Miss  Gould  became  powerless  with  excitement 
and  fell  motionless  to  the  ground.  There  her 
hands  were  bound  together  and  her  feet  in  front 
of  her  body  and  a  pole  thrust  through  between 
her  face  and  the  bound  hands  and  feet,  upon 
which  she  was  slung  and  borne  into  the  city  to 
the  temple  Chi-sheng-an,  since  blown  up  by  the 
foreign  powers.  Their  clothes  were  not  re- 
moved from  their  persons  then  or  at  any  time  so 
far  as  the  writer  can  learn;  but  the  brutal  mode 
of  conveyance  was  sufficiently  diabolical.  Miss 
Morrill  exhorted  the  people  as  she  walked  along 
and  even  gave  some  silver  to  a  poor  ceature  in 
the  crowd;  her  ruling  passion,  sympathy,  and 
her  ruling  trait,  self-effacement,  strong  in  these 
final  hours.  Mr.  Pitkin's  head  seems  to  have 
been  taken  into  the  city  to  the  Nieh-tai's  (or  pro- 
vincial judge's)  yamen  by  the  Imperial  soldiers, 
but  afterwards  was  probably  given  to  the  Box- 
ers, who  are  said  to  have  offered  it  at  the  shrine 
of  their  god.  But  the  most  persistent  inquiry 
does  not  disclose  its  final  resting  place.  Glorified 
and  spiritual  and  radiant  is  he  now  in  Paradise 
and  so  will  his  heavenly  form  appear  when  the 
dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first.  What  took  place 
between  the  Boxer  rabble  and  the  missionary 
women  in  the  temple  is  not  now  known,  but 
while  they  were  held  there,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bag- 
nail  with  little  Gladys,  and  Mr.  Wm.  Cooper 
were  brought  to  the  same  temple.  It  seems  that 
they  (hearing  and  seeing  what  was  going  on  in 
the  Congregational  compound  only  half  a  mile 
away)  had  collected  a  few  valuables  and  some 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    289 

money  and  fled  towards  Tientsin  to  the  Imperial 
military  camp  near  their  dwelling,  hoping  that 
the  soldiers  would  at  least  allow  them  to  pass  on, 
but  the  Colonel  Wong  Chan-kuei,  since  publicly 
beheaded  for  his  crimes,  received  them,  took  all 
their  valuables  and  then  turned  them  over  to  the 
provincial  judge  and  thence  to  the  Boxers,  who 
after  keeping  the  party  until  afternoon   in  the 
temple,  led  them  outside  the  city  gate  and  along 
the  city  wall,  eastward  to  the  southeast  corner  of 
the  wall.     They  were  led  by  the  Boxers,  who 
grasped   a   rope  that  was   passed   and   knotted 
around  the  clasped  and  uplifted  hands  of  Mr. 
Bagnall,  thence  around  his  neck,  and  thence  sim- 
ilarly about  the  hands  and  neck  of  each  other 
member  of  the  party,  except  the  little  girl,  who 
was    permitted    to   walk    freely   at    their   side. 
Guns  were  fired  and  demonstrations  made  until 
they  reached  a  large  grave  mound  at  the  corner 
of  the  wall,  said  to  be  the  grave  of  a  Boxer  killed 
sometime  previous  in  one  of  the  many  attacks 
upon  the  native  Christians   made  at  that  time. 
There,  their  precious  lives  were  poured  out,  the 
little  girl  being  thrust  through  with  a  spear,  the 
others  beheaded  and  buried  in  a  shallow  pit.    On 
the  arrival  of  the  foreign  soldiers  three  and  a  half 
months  later,  these  remains  had  been  much  dis- 
turbed and  were  indistinguishable,  and  poor  but 
kindly  neighbors  had  on  more  than  one  occasion 
reburied  them  as  they  became  exposed  to  view. 
Mr.  Pitkin's  body  was  buried  with  those  of  a 
number  of  native  Christians,  children  and  adults, 
who  perished  on  the  fatal  day,  but  has  since  been 
removed  in  the  presence  of  the  Christians  and 
with  reverent  and  solemn  affection  been  recof- 
fined  and  placed  in  safe  keeping  until  word  shall 
come  from  his  nearest  ones  what  shall  be  its  final 
resting  place.     The  letters  written  by  him  and 
perhaps  by  others  and  buried  with  such  care  were 


290  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

dug  up  by  greedy  Chinese  bent  on  plunder  and 
up  to  this  date,  although  they  have  been  adver- 
tised for  and  a  reward  offered  for  them,  they 
have  not  been  heard  of.  Such  is  the  brief  record 
of  those  fatal  days.  The  city  has  since  been 
punished,  the  provincial  judge  or  Nieh-tai  be- 
headed, the  Manchu  commandant  and  the  das- 
tardly colonel  also.  The  gate  towers  and  the 
corner  wall  towers  and  a  portion  of  the  wall  have 
been  blown  up,  the  Boxer  temples  destroyed,  and 
the  Gentry  fined  one  hundred  thousand  taels. 
By  a  striking  coincidence,  the  Nieh-tai  and  com- 
mandant and  colonel  were  imprisoned  in  the  very 
rooms  where  Dr.  Taylor,  their  victim,  had  for 
years  relieved  the  sickness  of  the  citizens  of  Pao- 
tingfu  and  where  the  Gospel  had  been  preached 
continuously  for  six  or  seven  years.  This  was 
the  mission  chapel  of  the  American  Presbyterian 
Mission  on  the  north  street  which  the  foreign 
commandants,  finding  empty  and  comparatively 
clean  on  their  arrival,  not  knowing  its  previous 
history,  appropriated  as  an  international  prison. 
Though  this  crime  was  wrought  with  such  con- 
spicuous brutality,  there  were  many  in  the  city 
who  truly  mourned  and  beat  their  breasts,  es- 
pecially at  the  fate  of  Dr.  Taylor  and  Miss  Mor- 
rill, who  had  been  longest  resident  and  were 
conspicuous  for  their  good  works.  The  wife  of 
the  Mohammedan  mollah  wore  mourning  for 
some  time  for  Miss  Morrill  and  not  a  few  pre- 
dicted some  condign  punishment  upon  the  city 
for  the  crime  of  slaying  Dr.  Taylor. 

"  *  What  I  do  thou  knowest  not  now,  but  thou 
shalt  know  hereafter.'  There  is  yet  hope  for 
Paotingfu.  The  very  consciousness  of  this  crime 
may  work  a  spirit  of  penitence  which  it  has  al- 
ways been  impossible  by  common  means  to  pro- 
duce. At  all  events,  the  prayers  of  God's  true 
people  must  have  as  a  key-note  the  Redeemer'? 


"The  Golden  Evening  Brightens"    291 

prayer,  '  Father  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not 
what  they  do.' " 

When  Mr.  Pitkin's  body  was  recovered,  it  was 
found  in  a  pit  with  nine  others,  bodies  of  Chinese 
whom  he  had  loved.  Seven  were  children  of 
the  Meng  brothers  and  of  their  sister,  one  a 
Shan-si  pupil  and  the  ninth  Meng's  sister,  her- 
self. Pitkin's  hands  were  not  bound  but  uplifted 
as  if  in  prayer,  in  which  position  they  became 
rigid.  The  character  of  the  life  had  set  in  per- 
manence.   Mr.  Lowrie  was  there. 


** Reverently,"  he  says,  "the  form  was  placed 
in  the  coffin,  which  the  Christians  had  neatly 
lined,  and  over  it  was  spread  a  red  flannel  cover- 
ing. Then  they  sang,  *  Precious  Name,  O  how 
sweet,'  and  *  When  He  cometh  to  make  up  His 
jewels.'  I  spoke  to  them  from  Jesus'  words  to 
those  on  His  right  hand,  *  Inasmuch  as  ye  have 
done  it  unto  the  least  of  these,'  referring  to  his 
interest  in  the  native  Christians'  children  and 
others.  The  younger  Meng  led  in  prayer.  There 
were  no  dry  eyes.  Even  the  hardened  old  '  To 
fang'  wept;  but  the  tears  of  the  Christians  were 
not  of  those  who  have  no  hope.  The  coffin  was 
placed  in  a  shed  together  with  that  of  the  elder 
Meng  and  some  others,  and  bricked  in  to  await 
final  interment  as  loved  ones  shall  indicate  later 
on.  And  in  all  the  completed  beauty  of  his 
glorified  spirit,  he  sees  the  face  of  his  Redeemer." 

Before  the  final  burial,  described  in  the  next 
chapter,  Horace's  head  was  found  buried  under 
the  ruins  of  the  southeast  tower  of  the  city  wall 


292  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

and  was  laid  away  with  the  body  in  its  final  rest- 
ing place  on  March  24,  1901. 

The  recollections  of  two  faithful  Chinese  of 
the  last  terrible  hours  should  be  given  in  their  en- 
tirety. Kuo  Lao-man  was  the  old  letter-carrier 
and  general  servant.  Of  an  interview  with  him, 
Miss  Mary  Porter  wrote: 

"I  think  he  must  be  the  one,  of  all  who  sur- 
vive, last  with  Mr.  Pitkin  and  to  him  were  en- 
trusted his  final  requests  and  messages.  Let  me 
write  as  nearly  as  I  can  in  the  good  man's  words. 
After  answering  my  questions  as  to  his  relations 
with  the  missionaries  there  and  to  the  safety  of 
his  wife  and  child,  I  asked  him  to  tell  me  what 
he  remembered  of  the  hours  before  he  stole  away 
from  the  compound,  when  Mr.  Pitkin  had  given 
up  hope  of  rescue  or  appeal  to  the  authorities, 
and  was  awaiting  the  attack  which  he  felt  sure 
would  not  be  long  delayed.  It  was  the  evening 
of  June  30th.  The  friends  already  knew  that  the 
Presbyterian  missionaries  had  all  been  killed  and 
their  houses  destroyed.  Mr.  Kuo  had  brought 
shoes  for  two  of  the  girls  who  bound  their  feet 
and  were  taken  away,  leaving,  he  thinks,  but  two 
of  the  pupils  with  Misses  Morrill  and  Gould. 
Nearly  all  the  Christian  natives,  too,  were  gone, 
but  Mrs.  Tu  and  her  family  remained.  All  were 
calm  and  quiet,  not  knowing  when  the  fanatics 
might  enter  the  compound.  Mr.  Kuo  said:  'I 
saw  Miss  Morrill  last  in  the  chapel  with  Mrs.  Tu. 
She  said,  "Now  we  can  only  wait.  Our  lives 
are  in  God's  keeping.  He  may  ask  us  to  lay  them 
down  very  soon."  I  did  not  see  Miss  Morrill  or 
Miss  Gould  afterwards,  but  went  to  Mrs.  Tu's 
door  just  before  I  left.  She  did  not  open  it  as 
she  was  in  bed  with  her  children,  but  said  good- 


"  The  Golden  Evening  Brightens  "    293 

bye  cheerfully  and  told  me  not  to  delay  and  im- 
peril my  own  life  as  there  was  nothing  I  could  do 
for  them.  I  was  a  long  time  with  Pastor  Pitkin. 
He  was  composed  and  calm.  He  told  me  of 
some  things  the  schoolboys  had  buried,  hoping 
to  save  them,  and  then  took  out  a  letter  he  had 
just  written  to  Pi  Tai  Tai  and  his  camera  and 
said:  "You  go  with  me  and  we  will  bury  these 
things  in  the  ground  under  the  dove-cote,  so 
when  all  is  over  you  will  know  where  to  fmd 
them.  Send  or  take  them  to  the  soldiers  from 
the  west,  or  whoever  comes  with  them,  so  that 
my  wife  may  be  sure  to  receive  them."  We 
went  out,  dug  quite  a  deep  hole  and  put  them 
carefully  in,  wrapped  in  water-proof  covers. 
Then  we  went  back  to  the  pastor's  room  and 
talked  till  after  midnight.  We  knew  little  of  the 
fate  of  the  Presbyterian  friends,  but  were  sure 
that  none  were  living.  At  last,  Mr.  Pitkin  said, 
"Do  not  risk  your  life  any  longer,  but  get  over 
the  wall  in  some  place  as  retired  as  may  be  and 
get  into  hiding  before  dawn.  My  letter  may  be 
found  and  destroyed.  If  you  learn  that  it  is,  send 
word  to  Pi  Tai  Tai  that  God  was  with  me  and 
His  peace  was  my  consolation.  Tell  her  that 
when  Horace  is  twenty-five  years  old,  I  hope  he 
will  come  to  China  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  my 
place."  Then  we  knelt  down  and  prayed  to- 
gether and  he  sent  me  away.  About  the  next 
day,  I  do  not  know  very  much.  The  pastor  was 
killed  in  the  compound  but  the  ladies  were  taken 
to  the  Boxer  headquarters.  I  have  not  dared  to 
go  back,  but  others  have  been  there  and  they  say 
the  dove-cote  ground  has  been  dug  over  and 
nothing  left  of  the  buried  articles.'" 

Miss  Nellie  Russell  writes  of  the  testimony  of 
Yang  Hsien  Sheng: 


294  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

"Yang  Hsien  Sheng  said  that  a  few  days  be- 
fore the  end  came,  Mr.  Pitkin  said  to  him,  *  We 
are  not  reading  anything  but  the  Bible  these 
days,  and  are  giving  ourselves  much  to  prayer. 
We  are  not  talking  "hsien  hua"  either,  but  mak- 
ing all  our  plans  for  heaven.'  To  another  he 
said,  'You  hurry  and  hide  away  in  the  country; 
we  cannot  escape — if  God  will  we  go  to  Him,  it 
is  well.'  To  another,  who  urged  going  to  the 
hills,  he  said,  *  It  is  no  use  for  us  to  plan,  we  are 
all  in  God's  hand.  He  will  do  what  is  best' 
The  day  Meng  Mu  Shih  was  killed,  he  said,  'It 
will  not  be  long  now.'  Some  of  the  women  said 
that  Saturday  evening  after  he  heard  of  the  terri- 
ble calamity  at  Pei  Kuan,  he  went  out  into  the 
yard,  watered  the  flowers,  pulled  up  some  weeds 
and  seemed  very  calm  and  quiet.  Lao-man  said 
that  he  built  the  fire  for  Mr.  Pitkin,  but  he  got 
his  own  supper." 

"  My  sword  I  give  to  him  that  shall  succeed  me 
in  my  pilgrimage,"  said  Valiant-for-Truth,  "and 
my  courage  and  skill  to  him  that  can  get  it.  My 
marks  and  scars  I  carry  with  me,  to  be  a  witness 
for  me,  that  I  have  fought  His  battles,  who  now 
shall  be  my  rewarder.  .  .  .  So  he  passed 
over,  and  all  the  trumpets  sounded  for  him  on 
the  other  side." 


IX 

IN  MEMORIAM 

"  Poor  fellow !  I  wonder  if  he  has  entered  upon  the  *  larger 
sphere  of  action  '  which  he  told  me  was  reserved  for  him  in 
case  of  such  a  trifling  accident  as  death.  Of  all  the  people 
whom  I  have  met  with  in  my  life,  he  and  Darwin  are  the  two 
in  whom  I  have  found  something  bigger  than  ordinary  human- 
ity— an  unequalled  simplicity  and  directness  of  purpose — a  sub- 
lime unselfishness.  Horrible  as  it  is  to  us,  I  imagine  that  the 
manner  of  his  death  was  not  unwelcome  to  himself.  Better 
wear  out  than  rust  out  and  better  break  than  wear  out.  The 
pity  is  that  he  could  not  have  known  the  feeling  of  his  country- 
men about  him." — Huxley  on  "  Chinese''''  Gordon. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  CHARLES  GEORGE  GORDON,  C.  B. 

Who  at  all  times  and  everywhere  gave  his  strength  to  the 
weak,  his  substance  to  the  poor,  his  sympathy  to  the  suffering, 
his  heart  to  God. 

Born  at  Woolwich,  28  January,  1833. 
Died  at  Khartoum,  26  January,  1885. 

He  saved  an  empire  by  his  warlike  genius,  he  ruled  vast 
provinces  with  justice,  wisdom  and  power  and  lastly  obedient 
to  his  sovereign's  command  he  died  in  the  heroic  attempt  to  save 
men,  women  and  children  from  imminent  and  deadly  peril. 

Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this  that  a  man  lay  down  his 
life  for  his  friends. — Gordon's  epitaph  in  St.  PauPs. 

There  were  memorial  services  in  many  com- 
munities, at  New  Hartford  and  Exeter  and  Yale 

295 


296  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

and  Cleveland,  but  the  most  impressive  of  all 
was  in  the  city  where  he  died.  There,  on  Sun- 
day, March  24,  1901,  in  a  great  open  yard,  was 
held  a  unique  international  funeral.  Miss  Miner 
writes  of  that  strange  service  and  of  the  service 
of  the  preceding  day  at  the  Presbyterian  com- 
pound: 

'*  Saturday  morning,  we  went  to  the  north 
suburb  at  eleven  o'clock,  to  unite  with  our  Pres- 
byterian friends  in  the  memorial  service  for  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Simcox  and  three  children,  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Hodge  and  Dr.  Taylor,  besides  thirty-four  of 
their  Chinese.  What  a  scene  of  desolation! 
There  are  hardly  enough  broken  bricks  left  on 
the  place  to  mark  the  site  of  the  house.  There, 
late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  day  before  our  mis- 
sion was  attacked,  our  eight  friends  perished  in 
the  flames  of  the  Simcox  house.  Surely,  their 
sacrifice  was  a  whole  burnt-offering.  May  it  in- 
spire us,  who  remain,  to  present  our  bodies,  a 
living  sacrifice,  wholly  acceptable!  There  were 
no  coffins  in  the  mat  booth,  where  the  service 
was  held,  but  in  a  shrine  made  beautiful  with 
flowers,  the  names  of  the  missionary  martyrs 
were  written  in  Chinese  and  there  were  many 
scrolls  presented  by  Chinese  officials,  gentry  and 
merchants  in  honor  of  those  who  had  laid  down 
their  lives  for  the  faith.  The  highest  Chinese 
officials  in  the  city  attended  the  service,  including 
the  provincial  judge,  the  prefect,  the  district 
magistrate  and  the  department  magistrate.  Also, 
General  Von  Kettler,  in  command  of  the  German 
forces  here,  with  many  other  German  and  French 
officers.  The  German  band  played  three  times, 
one  piece,  '  A  Mighty  Fortress  is  our  God,'  seem- 
ing especially  appropriate.     Mr.  Lowrie's  collec- 


In  Memoriam  297 

tion  of  Scripture  passages  was  wonderfully  full 
of  comfort  and  meaning.  Dr.  Wherry  paid  a 
tribute  to  the  dead.  Mr.  Lowrie  made  a  brief 
address  in  Chinese  and  one  Chinese  hymn  was 
sung.  In  English,  we  sang  'Asleep  in  Jesus,' 
and  the  last  verse  brought  tears  to  my  eyes: 

"  *  Asleep  in  Jesus,  far  from  thee, 

Thy  kindred  and  their  graves  may  be, 
But  thine  is  still  a  blessed  sleep 
From  which  none  ever  wake  to  weep.' 

"Sunday  at  eleven  o'clock  the  service  at  our 
own  compound  was  held.  In  a  great  matting 
booth  were  twenty-six  coffins  marked  with  the 
names  of  Mr.  Pitkin,  Miss  Morrill,  Miss  Gould, 
Mr.  Cooper,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bagnall  and  Gladys, 
Pastor  Meng  and  all  of  his  children,  except  Titus, 
Pastor  Meng's  sister  and  her  children,  the  Bible 
woman,  Mrs.  Chang  (Ch'ing  Hsiang's  mother), 
the  Bible  woman  Mrs.  Kao  and  her  daughter, 
Jessica,  and  others  less  well  known.  On  the 
banner  in  front  of  the  coffins  were  inscribed  the 
names  of  forty-three  Chinese  martyrs,  all  killed 
by  the  Boxers,  except  three  or  four  who  died  as 
the  result  of  imprisonment,  or  exposure  and 
starvation  in  their  hiding-places.  These  were  all 
of  our  own  mission.  On  this  same  banner  were 
the  Cross  and  Crown  and  the  motto,  '  Joyfully 
bearing  the  bitter  cross '  (Le  pei  k'u  chia).  There 
were  wreaths  of  evergreen,  and  a  few  flowers 
on  the  coffins  and  pots  of  flowers,  some  of 
which  were  sent  by  the  Catholic  priest  with  a 
beautiful  letter  of  sympathy,  were  arranged  in 
front.  The  schoolgirls  with  loving  fingers  had 
lined  the  coffins  of  Miss  Morrill  and  Miss  Gould 
with  white. 

"On  two  sides  of  the  court  where  the  service 


298  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

was  held  (the  booth  with  the  coffins  occupying 
the  third  side)  were  booths  hung  with  thirty-four 
banners  on  which  were  written  testimonials  to 
the  martyrs  with  the  names  of  the  donors. 
'  They  offered  their  bodies  as  a  sacrifice  for  truth.' 
'Martyrs  for  Righteousness.'  'Fragrance  flows 
from  the  Cross,'  were  some  of  the  sentiments  ex- 
pressed. Most  of  these  banners  were  presented 
by  outsiders  but  there  was  one  from  the  school- 
girls for  Miss  Morrill  and  Miss  Gould.  To  honor 
the  memory  of  our  American,  English  and  Chi- 
nese martyrs,  there  assembled  all  the  Chinese 
and  foreign  officials,  who  had  attended  Saturday's 
service  and  many  others.  There  were  five  bands, 
the  German,  French  and  three  Chinese.  The 
great  crowd  was  wonderfully  quiet;  a  solemn 
hush  was  in  the  air.  The  services  were  all  in 
Chinese,  except  a  short  address  by  Dr.  Smith  and 
a  few  words  of  thanks  to  those  who  attended  by 
Dr.  Peck;  Dr.  Sheffield  and  Pastor  Wu  of  P'ang 
Chuang  made  the  addresses  in  Chinese.  According 
to  the  Chinese  date,  this  beautiful  Sabbath  morn- 
ing was  exactly  nine  months  after  that  other  Sab- 
bath morning  when  the  blow  fell  on  our  mission. 
Dr.  Smith  referred  to  Mr.  Pitkin's  last  touching 
message  to  his  wife,  expressing  the  desire  that 
when  little  Horace  had  grown  to  manhood,  he 
would  come  back  and  take  up  his  father's  work 
in  China.  The  old  servant  who  had  taken  this 
oral  message  was  with  us  that  day.  He  had 
helped  Mr.  Pitkin  to  bury  the  letter  to  his  wife  in 
the  dove-cote,  but  the  Boxers  dug  it  up.  Mr. 
Pitkin  died  like  a  brave,  young  soldier.  He  and 
Miss  Gould  would  have  been  in  Tungcho  for 
mission  meeting  and  would  have  been  saved 
with  us  in  the  British  legation,  but  for  their  un- 
willingness to  leave  the  Christians  in  their  trouble. 
These  memories  thronged  over  us  and  made  that 
service  very  tender  and  solemn.     Each  of  the 


In  Memoriam  299 

foreign  bands  played  twice.  The  dirge  played 
by  the  French  band  was  especially  beautiful.  At 
the  close  of  the  formal  service  the  Chinese  offi- 
cials, then  hundreds  of  others,  came  forward  and 
made  a  low  bow  before  the  coffins.  Then  the 
Chinese  bands  played. 

**The  new  cemetery  for  the  martyrs  is  on  a 
large  piece  of  ground,  recently  purchased  by  Dr. 
Peck,  between  the  ruins  of  our  two  mission  com- 
pounds. The  long  procession  would  have  cov- 
ered the  distance  from  Dr.  Peck's  to  this  cemetery 
several  times  over.  So  it  made  a  circuit  travelling 
the  length  of  the  principal  street  of  the  south 
suburb,  then  going  back  of  our  compounds  and 
coming  up  from  the  east.  In  front,  were  borne 
the  thirty-four  banners  as  well  as  the  silk  um- 
brellas, etc.,  which  usually  accompany  a  great 
funeral.  There  were  six  catafalques,  all  the  city 
afforded,  with  their  gay  embroideries,  each  bear- 
ing two  coffins.  The  other  coffins  were  taken 
directly  to  the  cemetery.  The  men  walked  near 
the  coffins,  most  of  them  dressed  in  mourning. 
Twenty  or  thirty  carts,  containing  women, 
brought  up  the  rear.  The  road  from  Dr.  Peck's 
door  to  the  end  of  the  principal  street  was  sim- 
ply packed  with  people.  The  pageant  cannot 
have  failed  to  have  left  an  impression  on  the 
wicked  city,  and  while  caring  little  for  externals 
ourselves,  we  can  rejoice  that  our  dear  ones  have 
been  honored  in  the  eyes  of  those  to  whom  the 
outward  tokens  of  regard  mean  so  much.  We 
stood  in  the  cemetery  until  the  twenty-six  coffins 
had  been  lowered  into  the  graves.  We  faced 
the  city  wall  with  its  ruined  towers.  Only  the 
houses  of  the  village  concealed  the  spot  where 
for  months  six  of  the  martyrs  lay  in  a  common 
grave.  Mr.  Pitkin's  first  nameless  grave  was 
hardly  a  stone's  throw  away.  We  sang  in 
Chinese: 


300  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

"  *  Light  after  darkness,  gain  after  loss, 

Strength  after  weakness,  Crown  after  Cross. 
Sweet  after  bitter,  hope  after  fears, 
Home  after  wandering,  praise  after  tears. 

"  *  Sheaves  after  sowing,  sun  after  rain, 

Sight  after  mystery,  peace  after  pain. 
Joy  after  sorrow,  calm  after  blast, 
Rest  after  weariness,  sweet  rest  at  last. 

«  '  Near  after  distant,  gleam  after  gloom, 
Love  after  loneliness,  life  after  tomb, 
After  long  agony,  rapture  of  bliss, 
Right  was  the  pathway  leading  to  this.' 

After  prayer  and  benediction,  each  threw  a  hand- 
ful of  earth  on  the  coffins  and  we  left  the  spot, 
which  like  that  other  grave  outside  the  city  wall, 
will  ever  be  holy  ground,  God's  Acre.  It  is  not 
expected  that  other  Chinese  will  ever  be  buried 
there.  A  monument  on  which  are  carved  the 
names  of  these  martyrs  of  three  nations  will 
sometime  mark  the  spot." 

But  as  ever,  the  enduring  inscription  will  be  in 
life  and  not  on  stone.  One  of  the  fathers  of  his 
mission,  the  Rev.  Chauncey  Goodrich,  bears 
testimony  for  many  to  the  strength,  the  devotion 
of  the  dear  life  that  was  lived  for  God  and  given 
for  men: 

"  If  I  were  asked  to  give  my  estimate  of  Mr. 
Pitkin  in  a  word,  I  should  say  that  he  was  a  block 
of  granite  covered  with  flowers.  He  impressed 
me  as  having  a  bed-rock  of  firmness  and  strength, 
united  with  remarkable  gentleness,  sweetness  and 
sensitiveness.  What  a  warm  love  he  gave  to 
helpers  and  others  who  were  true  and  faithful! 


In  Memorlam  301 

But  he  demanded  sincerity  and  faithfulness  and 
faithful  dealing  with  any  who  seemed  to  him 
parasites  and  hypocrites.  From  the  first,  I  was 
greatly  drawn  to  him.  I  never  ventured  to  reckon 
myself  among  his  intimate  friends,  and  yet  I 
learned  to  love  him  as  1  love  few  men.  How  he 
played  the  piano  or  organ!  No  man  ever  moved 
me  so  with  his  playing.  All  his  soul  seemed  to 
go  into  the  instrument!  It  was  so  with  his  mis- 
sionary work.  He  seemed  to  have  given  China 
his  best  and  his  all.  I  did  not  guess  the  strength 
of  his  love  for  the  work  and  the  completeness  of 
his  consecration,  until  those  last  months,  when 
he  braved  the  separation  from  all  the  world  held 
dearest,  and  finally  set  himself  to  watch  over  the 
Paotingfu  station  during  those  days  which  ended 
in  the  terrible  cataclysm.  God's  way  is  in  the 
sea.  1  do  not  understand  the  strange  providence 
which  took  this  blessed  brother  from  us.  But  I 
think  that  on  the  other  side  of  the  planet,  there 
must  be  men  ready  to  spring  forward  into  his 
place.  He  who  carries  in  His  hands  the  print  of 
the  nails,  and  in  His  heart  an  everlasting  love,  can 
never  forget  His  work. 

"  Oh!  my  blessed  brother!  I  could  hardly  have 
it  so,  that  you  should  receive  the  fiery  baptism 
and  be  caught  away,  when  so  in  love  with  life, 
and  with  your  great  life-work,  but  beginning — 
and  now  as  I  sit  half  dumb,  I  wonder  if  some 
other  sons  of  wealth  may  catch  your  spirit  of 
sacrifice,  and  with  hearts  that  leap  with  joy  at  the 
privilege,  make  a  like  consecration  of  time,  and 
strength  and  money,  and  all,  to  the  highest,  the 
most  difficult  and  the  most  blessed  work  on  the 
planet." 

Dr.  W.  C.  Noble  writes: 

"  He    lived  in  the  same  house  with   me  at 


302  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

Paotingfu  for  two  and  a  half  years,  and  I  am, 
therefore,  in  a  position  to  know  something  of  the 
man  and  his  characteristics.  In  his  home  life,  he 
was  a  beautiful  character,  the  embodiment  of 
everything  grand  and, ennobling.  He  possessed 
a  strong  and  striking  personality — and  impressed 
me  as  a  man  remarkably  well  equipped  for  the 
work  to  which  he  had  given  himself,  in  his 
dealings  with  the  Chinese  he  was  firm,  tactful, 
yet  always  loving  and  kind,  and  I  believe 
possessed  their  love  and  respect.  To  us,  his  life 
seems  prematurely  closed,  but  God,  who  sees  so 
much  clearer,  has  doubtless  taken  him  at  the  very 
moment  when  he  was  ripe  for  glory." 

And  Mr.  Lowrie  says: 

'*The  three  things  that  most  impressed  me  in 
Mr.  Pitkin  were  his  uniform  and  uncommon 
cheerfulness,  his  love  of  music,  which  penetrated 
his  very  being,  and  his  desire  to  plant  missionary 
work  on  the  most  solid  foundations.  He  used  to 
spin  over  to  our  mission  on  his  wheel  and  go 
from  house  to  house  with  a  fund  of  good  spirits, 
that  always  refreshed  us,  one  and  all.  His  keen 
interest  in  everything  that  arose  for  discussion  in 
all  matters  from  the  homeland,  in  the  incidents 
of  missionary  every-day  life,  his  hearty  laugh  and 
fine  manly  bearing  left  upon  us  in  the  north 
suburb  mission  the  impression  that  one  of  the 
strong  ones  had  been  among  us, — an  impression 
that  was  intensified  when  the  angel-faced  little 
son  and  his  radiant  mother  made  a  group  of  three 
visitants  who  were  always  so  welcome  and 
helpful. 

"  The  music  in  his  soul  was  perhaps  secretly  a 
source  of  the, bright,  hopeful  temperament  that 
made  him  so  welcome  a  visitor  and  companion. 


In  Memoriam  303 

No  doubt,  heredity  and  the  faith  of  the  Lord  and 
Redeemer  were  the  chief  sources.  But  when  his 
hands  touched  an  instrument — piano  or  organ — 
music  seemed  to  be  generated  as  naturally  as 
fragrance  from  an  open  flower  by  sun  and  spring 
breezes.  He  lost  himself  in  the  strains  of  melody, 
whether  joining  with  his  own  beautiful  tenor 
voice  or  accompanying  the  accomplished  singing 
of  the  equally  gifted  songstress  of  his  home. 
One  of  the  never-to-be-forgotten  memories  of 
one's  lifetime  is  that  of  summer  Sunday  evenings 
by  the  sea  at  Pei-tai-ho,  when  the  lovers  of  song 
would  gather  on  the  veranda  surrounding  his 
house,  himself  presiding  at  the  little  organ,  and 
sing  that  deeply  plaintive,  yet  hope-inspiring 
song,  'Some  time  we'll  understand.'  How 
little  did  we  realize  that  its  pathetic  sentiment 
would  be  so  soon  the  burden  of  our  own  daily 
thinking.  He  needs  to  sing  it  no  more;  but  the 
soul  that  so  revelled  in  harmonies  of  sound  here 
below,  must  be  feasting  upon  those  infinitely 
more  satisfying  melodies  with  which  the  heavenly 
world  resounds  in  the  presence  of  the  Lamb  that 
was  slain.  Then  to  offset  as  it  were  this  more 
artistic  talent  of  our  translated  friend,  there  ever 
appeared  in  his  conversation  and  his  actual 
practice  the  clear  conviction  that  missionary  con- 
verts and  pupils  should  be  educated  into  habits  of 
self-reliance  and  thrifty  activity.  This  general 
truth  every  intelligent  missionary  recognizes  as  a 
fundamental  one,  but  not  every  one  has  the 
courage  to  face  and  modify  the  actual  mission 
practice  which  sometimes  tends  to  deny  the 
principle.  The  application  of  the  principle  in- 
volves great  exercise  of  wisdom  and  determi- 
nation, and  is  safer  in  the  hands  of  an  experi- 
enced missionary  than  of  a  newcomer.  Though 
holding  the  principle  very  enthusiastically,  he 
seems  not  to  have  pressed  it  in  the  earlier  years 


304    A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

of  his  missionary  life,  but  was  gradually  intro- 
ducing it  as  he  grew  into  the  work.  Since  the 
writer  did  not  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  membership 
in  the  same  mission  with  Mr.  Pitkin,  he  has  not 
the  means  of  knowing  the  spirit  in  which  the 
changes  in  the  interest  of  self-support  which  he 
with  his  colleagues  introduced  into  the  boys' 
school,  were  received.  The  changes  were  not  of 
so  radical  a  nature  as  to  provoke  bitterness  of 
feeling.  And  the  knowledge  which  the  Chris- 
tians had  that  he  was  of  an  opulent  family  and 
beneficient  and  charitable,  forestalled  any  sus- 
picions of  selfish  or  harsh  motives  that  might 
otherwise  have  risen  up  in  their  minds.  His 
work  was  laid  down  almost  as  soon  as  taken  up. 
The  ways  of  Jehovah  are  high  as  heaven  above 
our  ways.  We  are  dumb  with  amazement,  but 
dare  not  entertain  the  shadow  of  a  question  that 
all  the  ways  of  the  Lord  are  just  and  wise,  and 
loving  too.  Eternity  must  present  the  solution  to 
this  as  it  will  to  countless  heart-breaking  riddles 
that  baffle  the  best  thoughts  of  God's  children. 
One  thing  is  certain,  he  never  regretted  his  choice 
of  the  missionary  career,  though  he  gave  up  a 
much  more  congenial  one  in  the  homeland.  His 
last  words  eloquently  declare  that  he  loved  China 
with  the  love  that  brought  the  Redeemer  to  the 
Cross,  and  that  his  last  thought  was  that  those 
whom  he  could  influence  might  give  themselves 
as  he  had  done,  for  her  redemption.  To  the 
college  men  of  the  United  States,  his  example 
must  speak  in  no  whispered  tone — '  He  that  loseth 
his  life  for  My  sake  and  the  Gospel's,  the  same 
shall  save  it.' " 

One  other  memorial  must  be  added.  It  is  a 
translation  of  the  loving  testimony  of  Mr.  Meng, 
pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church  in  Paotingfu. 


In  Memoriam  305 

*' Pastor  Pitkin  was  an  American  of  means,  of 
great  learning  and  noble  character.  The  name  of 
his  wife  was  Thomas.  His  son's  name  was 
Horace.  Formerly  he  was  a  leader  in  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.;  his  heart  was  such  that  he  constantly  ex- 
horted men  to  do  good  deeds,  but  it  was  his  joy 
to  unwearyingly  preach  the  Gospel.  He  went 
everywhere  through  the  colleges  and  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  spend  himself  in  journeying  over  moun- 
tains and  rivers.  In  furthering  the  interests  of 
the  Gospel  of  good  tidings  and  of  truth,  he  was 
ever  willing  to  give  of  his  substance.  The  service 
which  he  rendered  unto  the  Lord  was  from  a 
heart  filled  with  sincerity.  Because  of  all  this, 
many  men  were  inspired  by  him  either  them- 
selves to  go  to  foreign  lands  to  preach  or  to  pour 
out  money  from  their  purses  to  help  in  every 
good  work.  The  number  of  these  men  is  so 
great  that  time  would  fail  us  to  make  mention  of 
them  all. 

"Our  pastor  (shepherd)  visited  Palestine  and 
Egypt  and  saw  the  place  where  our  Saviour  Jesus 
lived.  In  the  twenty-second  year  of  the  Emperor 
Kwang  Shu,  he  came  to  North  China  and  in  a 
short  time  came  to  Paotingfu.  No  matter  when 
we  heard  him  preach,  the  heart  of  the  writer 
went  out  to  him  in  lasting  affection.  On  Sabbath 
evenings,  when  there  was  leisure,  we  used  to 
talk  heart  to  heart,  and  he  was  always  free  from 
any  overbearing  manner,  so  sincerely  did  he  love. 
His  wife  at  first  did  not  understand  the  language, 
but  the  writer's  wife  taught  her  and  in  a  few 
months,  she  understood  not  a  little. 

**The  writer,  with  Pastor  Pitkin  and  Pastor 
Ewing,  went  to  examine  the  churches  and  to 
visit  the  Christians,  in  order  to  observe  the  Lord's 
Supper  with  them,  and  to  select  deacons.  Into 
all  these  things,  our  pastor  threw  his  whole  heart. 
The  atmosphere  of  his  household  was  strict  and 


306  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

reverent,  and  his  little  son  was  taught  righteous- 
ness. In  praising  the  Lord,  he  sang  most  beauti- 
fully and  at  his  leisure  moments,  his  heart  was 
made  glad  by  playing  on  the  piano.  If  the  in- 
strument was  at  all  out  of  order  he  was  able  to 
detect  it  and  repair  it.  If  the  clocks  of  his  friends 
got  out  of  order,  he  could  quickly  mend  them. 
He  was  skilled  in  taking  photographs  and  once 
when  the  pastors,  evangelists  and  Christians 
were  met  together,  he  photographed  them  in  a 
group  and  did  it  so  well  that  even  to  the  present 
time  the  picture  is  distinct  in  every  detail.  (Lit- 
erally: hair,  beard  and  every  feature.)  Only  to 
see  this  picture  now  causes  me  sorrow  of  heart; 
for  my  brothers  and  their  sons,  six  in  all,  are 
gone.  My  heart  is  not  stone  or  wood.  How 
would  it  be  possible  not  to  sorrow  ?  He  also 
photographed  his  son  and  the  writer's  son  to- 
gether and  the  writer,  pointing  to  the  picture  of 
child  Horace,  said  to  his  son,  '  This  is  your  dear 
and  intimate  friend.  Later  you  two  children, 
bound  together  with  one  heart,  will  work  to- 
gether in  the  holy  service  of  the  Gospel.' 

"  In  building  the  church,  he  willingly  and 
freely  contributed,  and  in  helping  poor  people, 
he  gave  with  largest  liberality.  In  preaching  or 
explaining  the  Scripture,  he  was  extremely  dili- 
gent and  earnest.  Among  men  there  are  good 
and  bad.  The  latter,  though  he  exhorted  them 
earnestly  and  with  sorrow  of  heart,  did  not  sym- 
pathize with  this  spirit.  After  speaking  with 
men,  as  they  were  about  to  leave,  he  always 
knelt  with  them  in  prayer.  He  loved  others  as 
he  loved  himself,  and  in  this,  did  he  not  imitate 
the  example  of  Christ.^  That  the  writer  escaped 
meeting  destruction  is  due  to  his  pastor.  In  the 
fourth  moon,  the  writer  with  his  brother,  Ki 
Hien,  went  to  Tungcho  for  the  annual  mission 
meeting.     On  the  second  of  the  fifth  moon,  the 


In  Memoriam  307 

railroad  from  Lu  Ko  K'aio  to  Paotingfu  was  de- 
stroyed by  the  Boxers.  As  soon  as  we  heard  of 
it,  my  brother  wished  to  return  home  and  started 
on  the  following  day.  On  the  afternoon  of  the 
third,  the  annual  meeting  closed.  At  dawn  on  the 
fourth,  I  with  my  family,  and  many  others  who 
had  been  attending  the  annual  meeting,  went  on 
board  a  river  boat  and  on  the  seventh  arrived  at 
Tientsin.  As  soon  as  I  arrived  at  Tientsin.  1  im- 
mediately considered  the  question  of  returning  to 
Paotingfu;  but  just  at  this  time,  we  heard  that 
many  railroad  employees  had  been  massacred  and 
I  was  in  a  quandary  what  to  do.  While  I  was  in 
the  midst  of  my  questionings,  Pastor  Pitkin  sent 
me  a  telegram,  urging  me  to  stay  in  Tientsin  and 
not  to  return.  At  this  time,  the  Paotingfu  church 
was  destroyed  and  many  Christians  killed.  I  es- 
caped because  of  my  pastor's  thoughtfulness.  If 
he  did  not  love  men,  would  he  have  acted  thus.^* 
Fortunately,  his  wife  and  little  son  Horace  re- 
turned to  the  home  country  for  a  visit  during  the 
hot  season,  just  before  the  Boxer  troubles  broke 
out.  On  the  fourth  of  the  sixth  moon,  the 
church  was  burned  and  the  smoke  ascended  to 
heaven.  The  Christians  were  all  in  fear,  only  our 
pastor  was  quiet  and  calm  as  usual.  In  the  house, 
the  tables  and  chairs  were  dusted  as  was  the  daily 
custom  and  the  garden  and  flowers  watered  as  in 
peaceful  times.  We  know  all  this  from  the  ser- 
vants who  later  fled  from  the  house.  On  the  ap- 
proach of  danger,  he  did  not  fear  but  in  every- 
thing manifested  a  brave  heart.  In  preaching  the 
Gospel,  in  helping  men,  he  manifested  a  love  for 
men.  He  was  characterized  by  bravery  and 
benevolence,  but  it  was  fated  that  he  should  not 
escape  the  hand  of  the  murderous  Boxers.  On 
the  fifth  of  the  sixth  moon,  he  left  us.  In  the 
latter  part  of  the  eighth  moon,  I  went  with  the 
foreign  soldiers  to  Paotingfu.     On  arrival,  I  care- 


3o8  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

fully  inquired  about  Pastor  Pitkin  and  all  that  had 
happened  to  him  from  first  to  last.  The  church 
had  been  surrounded  by  the  Boxers;  they  used 
large  guns  and  shot  him  down  on  the  steps  of  the 
church.  Afterwards,  they  beheaded  him  and  left 
his  body  there.  Later  some  petty  officials  buried 
him.  The  writer  afterwards  sought  out  his  grave 
where  he  was  buried  with  nine  others.  All  were 
taken  up  and  put  in  coffins.  On  the  fifth  of  the 
second  moon  of  this  year,  friends  were  invited 
to  come  together  to  condole  with  the  bereaved. 
Those  who  had  died  at  the  hands  of  the  Boxers 
were  over  twenty  in  number,  including  Chinese 
and  foreigners,  men  and  women,  old  and  young. 
On  the  day  of  the  funeral,  the  generals  of  the 
German  and  French  army  were  present,  together 
with  soldiers  and  the  military  bands.  The  high 
officials  of  the  city  and  several  groups  of  Chinese 
musicians  came  to  act  as  escort  through  the  city 
streets.  It  was  a  beautiful  day  and  multitudes 
came  to  see,  thronging  the  streets.  Thus  God 
recompensed  these  good  people  who  had  died. 
Only  I,  reflecting  on  the  good  I  received  from 
him  during  the  years  of  our  fellowship  in  service 
together,  could  not  but  be  stirred  in  my  heart  and 
grieved.  I  urge  myself  out  of  a  broken  heart  to 
write  these  words  concerning  him  that  we  may 
not  forget." 

"That  we  may  not  forget,"  writes  good  Pastor 
Meng.  Forget  what  ?  The  great  truth  that  love 
and  duty  are  the  great  sovereignties  of  life,  that 
what  men  ought,  they  ought,  and  that  the  great- 
est glory  is  the  glory  of  the  Son  of  Man  whom 
love  made  the  servant  of  the  world. 

The  Yale  Alumni  Weekly,  for  November  28, 
1900,  which  published  the  account  of  the  Pitkin 


In  Memoriam 


309 


Memorial  Service  in  Dwight  Hall,  contained  also 
the  report  of  the  Yale-Harvard  football  game  and 
an  editorial  on  the  "Football  Season,"  which 
made  no  mention  of  Pitkin,  but  in  these  words 
did  unconsciously  describe  the  spirit  of  his  fear- 
less and  unhesitating  life: 

"A  great  many  things  are  impossible  in  life, 
but  the  man  who  spends  much  time  in  thinking 
about  the  impossibilities  that  lie  in  his  path  is  go- 
ing to  add  to  them  rather  than  detract  from  them, 
and  the  man  who  believes  that  nothing  is  impos- 
sible if  it  is  in  the  line  of  his  duty,  reduces  and 
sometimes  altogether  blots  out  the  list  of  those 
things  that  men  say  cannot  be  done.  Yale  teams 
have  been  different  from  other  teams,  principally 
from  the  belief  that  nothing  which  was  set  before 
them  was  impossible.  We  sincerely  hope  that 
this  season  has  brought  back  that  feeling  into 
Yale  efforts  on  field  or  river  or  platform,  and  that 
it  will  again  become  a  part  of  the  Yale  man's 
theory  of  life." 

It  was  the  theory  of  Horace  Pitkin's  life.  And 
the  end  of  it  was  what  ?  Martyrdom  ?  Well, 
the  greatest  character  in  human  history  deemed 
that  a  glorious  ending  of  His  life,  and  He  laid  it 
down  as  the  law  of  life  forever,  that  whoso 
would  seek  to  save  his  life,  shall  lose  it,  and  that 
whoso  loseth  it  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  saves  it 
forever. 

''Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,"  said  Jesus 
when  the  Greeks  were  brought  to  Him  in  the 
court  of  the  temple,  "except  a  grain  of  wheat 
fall  into  the  earth  and  die,  it  abideth  by  itself 


310  A  Memorial  of  Horace  Tracy  Pitkin 

alone;  but  if  it  die  it  beareth  much  fruit.  He 
that  loveth  his  life  loseth  it;  and  he  that  hateth 
his  life  in  this  world  shall  keep  it  unto  life 
eternal.  If  any  man  serve  Me  let  him  follow 
Me;  and  where  I  am  there  shall  also  My  servant 
be:  if  any  man  serve  Me,  him  will  the  Father 
honor." 


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